The pandemic has left numerous examples of how to innovate in the creative and cultural sector. Many of these innovations have to do with changes in production, in the mode of delivery or in the monetization model of art, and they have in common the use of technology as a revulsion. What lessons can be drawn from all this?
A director of a cultural industry company closed her analysis of the impact of the pandemic in her sector like this: “One of my conclusions after these two years is that, although we are all in the same storm, very unfortunately, not all of us are in the same boat… We all talk that we are in the same crisis, but the realities experienced and the future demands of this crisis are very different for each sector”. In the year 2023, it is verified that both the daily growth of confirmed cases as a result of COVID-19 and the growth rate of deaths have a linear negative correlation with the profitability of the shares in the financial markets. And of all the affected sectors, without a doubt, the culture and entertainment sector has not yet managed to reach calm.
The creative and cultural sector faces, as a result of the pandemic, many challenges resulting from closures, cancellations, bankruptcies, self-employed workers without work and months without billing. Intuition led to thinking that 2020 would be a horrible year, but full recovery is difficult even two years later. Some institutions partially circumvented the closures through the rapid implementation of digital tools (online tours, museum exhibitions…), but the consequences for the cultural sector have been clear:
• The sector has suffered especially, because it is based on the physical contact and in the social interaction for its production and consumption. He suffered from lockdowns, physical distancing and travel restrictions like anyone else.
• The sector is based on fragile organizationsfragmented value chains into multiple small operators, project-based work and income without the necessary intellectual property protection.
• The sector has suffered the government measures of containment of the movement implemented, for example, in the European Union, which have led to a series of chain effects that have simply aggravated their situation.
Proposals for new ways of thinking and doing things are emerging from the wreckage. The need to make structural changes and to use new technologies to broaden access to culture is being seen. There is talk again of the need to democratize art and culture. And, with it,
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