Artists were among the first workers affected by government interventions to inhibit the spread of COVID-19, when the lights were turned out at every theatre and nearly every exhibition space in Australia.

MEAA Equity president Chloe Dallimore has summarised the outcome as "mass job losses, overnight, with no entitlements/benefits".

TV presenter and performer Julia Zemiro said she has serious fears for friends and colleagues and is regularly checking in with them.

"The arts have been slammed, we need to put it out there that artists have a unique set of circumstances in how we work," she said.

As Parliament prepared to sit on Wednesday to consider the next stimulus measures, artists' calls for sector-specific support measures were increasingly distressed.

On Tuesday, the National Association for Visual Arts (NAVA) launched the 24-hour campaign #createaustraliasfuture, in which big names like Richard Roxburgh, Julia Zemiro, John Bell and Rachael Maza rally behind the cause.

How much trouble is the arts sector in?

New figures compiled by the Australian Bureau of Statistics reveal 53 per cent of small arts and recreation businesses have now closed their doors.

The figures capture a very broad range of organisations but even so, they are higher than every other sector, including accommodation and food services — which has seen 31 per cent of businesses closed.

This graphic shows the proportion of businesses in each sector that were operating at April 7. ( Supplied: Australian Bureau of Statistics )

Hospitality workers with regular shifts are eligible for the Federal Government stimulus schemes but the majority of arts workers are not.

For example, Amala Groom, one of 50,000 artists who make up the 600,000 workers in Australia's $100 billion arts sector, is not eligible for JobSeeker.

Groom started working as a conceptual artist in her mid-30s, after a successful career in Aboriginal advocacy that took her to the United Nations.

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Six years later, the Wiradjuri woman was poised to enjoy a breakthrough year with a back-to-back international schedule of paid residencies, institutional and commercial exhibitions, and major projects including her first documentary — all of them career highlights.

All this is now cancelled and she does not even know what to work towards as galleries cannot schedule exhibitions with any certainty and most art prizes are on hold.

Artist Amala Groom says the arts sector needs an industry-specific stimulus package. ( Supplied: NORPA/Kate Holmes )

"How do I prove [this year's work ever existed] when it was all in the future?" Groom said.

"Unless the Australian arts sector gets an industry-specific stimulus package, it's going to be impossible for artists like me to claim any [income] support".

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Julia Zemiro has recorded all but two episodes for her upcoming ABC series Home Delivery.

She is disappointed to have cancelled the big annual RocKwiz Easter weekend Melbourne Comedy Festival live show and regional tour, which she hosts.

She is heartbroken about the cancellation of her second, and what was to be her final, Adelaide Cabaret Festival as artistic director in June, and the opportunities it would have provided performers, that will in all likelihood now never happen.

Groom and Zemiro's patchwork careers are typical of all kinds of workers in the arts.

The I Lost My Gig website, established to track COVID-19-related cancellations, has logged $330 million in lost gigs. Under the headline "Support is Here" it lists a phone number for the music and performing-arts wellbeing helpline Support Act, and a phone number for Lifeline.

What does the arts sector want the Federal Government to do?

Dozens of artists have added their voices to a whole-of-industry campaign launched under the banner "Create Australia's Future" seeking allowances for the patchwork, freelance and uneven nature of arts work.

Richard Roxburgh said the industry shutdown would result in the loss of Australian stories.

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"Every artist has lost their audience and therefore the income stream they normally generate for themselves. This industry is on the brink of collapse," he said.

"We are keenly aware we are not on the frontline wearing PPE but we are your voice. We need to make sure after this pandemic has passed Australia still has a voice to tell the beautiful, eccentric, crazy, dark, hilarious and profound stories of who we are as a people," Roxburgh said.

Groom, Zemiro and Roxburgh are joined by Mitchell Butel and John Bell, directors Daina Reid and Rachael Maza, fellow artists Sally Smart and Abdul-Rahman Abdullah representing freelancers and more than 160 organisations that engage them.

Smart has not even seen the finished exhibition of her work being staged by Bendigo Art Gallery in Victoria, which was open for one day before the doors were closed.

She is among the lucky ones, because her exhibition, years in the making, was completed and funded — but there are no guarantees an audience will ever see it, and future commissions are in jeopardy.

"We want the Prime Minister to acknowledge how the sector is suffering, as Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has done," Smart said.

Sally Smart is one of the artists celebrated in the National Gallery of Australia's Know My Name campaign. ( Supplied: National Gallery of Australia )

Why is JobKeeper ineffectual for arts organisations?

Arts minister Paul Fletcher said when the JobSeeker and JobKeeper schemes were announced that they could amount to billions in assistance for the arts.

"We know COVID-19 is having unprecedented effects on our artists, arts workers and the entire sector. This measure protects jobs, supports individuals and hands a lifeline to organisations during this challenging period," Minister Fletcher said.

However, these measures are ineffectual for many arts organisations.

On the employer side, organisations need to show at least 15 per cent COVID-19-related downturn in income if they are not-for-profit, and 30 per cent if they're for-profit — but uneven cash flow is typical for arts organisations funded by box office and sometimes grants, sponsorship and philanthropy.

These companies are under huge pressure to be eligible because at the moment they feel like they are letting their casual workers down.

"We need a different way of demonstrating eligibility," said Esther Anatolitis, executive director of the National Association for the Visual Arts and campaign leader.

Esther Anatolitis is executive director of the National Association for the Visual Arts. ( Supplied: NAVA/Sarah Walker )

As it stands, organisations which should be eligible are not, she said.

Artspace in Sydney is a case in point: it is ineligible for JobKeeper because it receives a significant amount of income from philanthropy, benefaction and sponsorship which will likely be reduced by this crisis.

Unlike retail, where income over the counter is reasonably regular, Artspace's irregular large chunks of income might not materialise this year on account of the downturn.

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The same conundrum is evident at theatres and galleries run by councils and universities, which the Prime Minister has said are ineligible.

On the employee side, casuals and those on short-term contracts, such as musical theatre workers engaged for the run of a show, are also ineligible.

Cast rehearsing for Disney's Frozen the Musical, due to open in Sydney in July, for example, would have reasonably expected at least a full year of work ahead, even though they had only signed up in recent months.

The cast — and crew — are in limbo given the uncertainty about when social distancing restrictions will be lifted, allowing Frozen to open. Currently, they would be ineligible for JobKeeper while they wait.

Anatolitis said that rather than having had to work with an employer for a year to qualify for JobKeeper, a three-month qualifying period would better suit the short-term nature of arts work.

Why are most arts workers ineligible for JobSeeker?

To receive the more generous payment, double the previous Newstart allowance, workers need to prove a loss of income caused by COVID-19 but, as with businesses seeking to access JobKeeper, that "loss of income" can be hard to demonstrate.

Screen director Daina Reid was two weeks into shooting episodes for series four of The Handmaid's Tale in Canada when production was halted and she re-joined her family in Melbourne.

Reid is not eligible for JobSeeker due to the duration of her contract and working overseas, but says that being freelance, she carefully manages her finances to accommodate swings and roundabouts.

"[But] so much of my life is filled with actors, writers and crew, I wanted to add my voice in an effort for this campaign to be heard," she said.

Anatolitis cites the case of an Adelaide artist who has lost $60,000 on account of Dark MOFO being cancelled — the equivalent of two years' work.

Even a modest $1,000 or $2,000 grant from local or state government would result in JobSeeker being lost because the grant is counted as income, even though it is generally for materials and an artist fee.

"It's truly awful, and so easily repairable," Anatolitis said.