Whither Culture?

Eduardo Del Buey
Foto: Reuters
La Jornada Maya

Miércoles 22 de abril, 2020

COVID-19 is changing our lives significantly.

The next few years will see a major transformation for all of us as the world we knew before the pandemic morphs into something new and as yet undefined.

This applies to the production and distribution of cultural products.

Staying in quarantine in our homes is changing our behavioral patterns and how we consume cultural products. It has also underscored the importance of these products in our lives not only as sources of inspiration during a major existential crisis but also as a social pacifier in times of enormous challenges.

While we cocoon, many of us read more, listen to more music, watch more movies, concerts, and programs on television, play video games, and surf the web some to engage in virtual visits to museums, touristic attractions and architectural sites, both historical and contemporary.

While stuck at home, many of us are realizing the importance and the vitality of the cultural products that fill our communications platforms and give content to the technology upon which we all depend.

Core to the success of these communications platforms are the creators, artists and producers who populate this virtual universe and provide us with entertainment.

How will cultural producers survive as the world creates a new normal where we congregate less in large groups in one place but, rather, stay at home and look for new ways to access cultural products? A world in which we access most of our entertainment through on-line devices? In which we cocoon with our families and friends in small groups in our homes rather than gather in public in large groups? In which we want for cultural products to reach us rather than be expected for us to reach them?

How will playwrights, producers, curators, art historians, set designers, and other who contribute greatly to the creation of cultural products adapt to changing market conditions?

Technology and culture are at a crossroads.

Technology is increasingly bringing us closer together. It is offering greater possibilities for more choice and content to people everywhere as well as ease of access and acquisition. It is changing consumption patterns with respect to products and services. This applies to cultural products as well as other products that contribute to our well-being.

In less developed regions, governments and the private sector can play a role in making technology available to artistic creators and audiences and providing artists with an avenue to distribute their products via pay or subsidized television programming to audiences they may never have considered before.

But what about other industries? Some consider gastronomy to be a major cultural product. Today, tens of thousands of restaurants are going bankrupt, and their chefs, waiters, kitchen staff and cleaners are joining the unemployment lines. It will take time for the restaurant industry to recover and offer employment opportunities to the hundreds of thousands of employees worldwide who have been laid off without any benefits with few exceptions – Canada is giving those unemployed by COVID 19 CDN$2000 per month for four months to help them.

As we become accustomed to ordering food through UberEats and other online delivery services, will this eat into the economic potential of restaurants as we know them? Will the new option of in-home eating reduce the number of jobs that this sector once offered?

Tourism is another sector that will continue to suffer over the short term. This sector counts for some 65 million jobs worldwide, and, in most cases, directly or indirectly depends on culture for its appeal. No one knows how many will survive the current closures with their ancillary financial costs should they remain closed for more than a few months. As well, will the current change in the travel paradigm affect their operations when the pandemic ends? People’s will likely remain wary of contagion for a while, and their reduced incomes and increased debt load may well affect tourism significantly for at least a few years.

Architecture, music, food, museums, and cultural institutions all cater to tourists, and all depend on cadres of creative people to produce the attractions that bring tourists to their countries. Hotels, airlines, ground transportation workers, and others all depend on culture to motivate travel.

Yet many cultural products are now available online, reducing the need for us to travel to them. Indeed, purists may think that travel will always have an appeal, and they are right. But with alternative modes of exploring new places and cultures, many may prefer to do so from the comfort of their homes rather than put up with the stresses that modern travel entails.

A 2017 UNESCO study reported that, the creative economy is made up of cultural and creative industry sectors that generate annual revenues of USD$2.250 trillion and global exports of over USD$250 billion. According to recent forecasts, these sectors would represent around 10 per cent of global GDP in the years to come. The cultural and creative industries currently provide nearly 30 million jobs worldwide and employ more people aged 15?29 than any other sector. Nearly half of the people working in the cultural and creative industries are women, opening up new opportunities to address gender inequalities.

Many of these jobs were imperiled already given the massive market changes arising from the communications revolution of the past two decades. Others will disappear or change radically during the next few years.

Our future has accelerated since COVID-19 broke out. We should all consider the future of the arts and all who support them in the new economy that could develop after the pandemic subsides and we begin to rebuild local, national and global economies.

Some governments are already realizing this. Germany’s Minister of Culture Monika Grütters recently noted that “our democratic society needs its unique and diverse cultural and media landscape in this historical situation, which was unimaginable until recently. The creative courage of creative people can help overcome the crisis. We should seize every opportunity to create good things for the future. That is why the following applies: artists are not only indispensable, but also vital, especially now.”

On April 17th the Canadian government announced the creation of a CDN$500 million fund to support the arts, sports, and cultural sectors. Heritage Canada Minister Steven Guilbealt said that “the programs that we’ve already announced weren’t tailored for (independent workers), and didn’t take into account the specific nature of the arts and culture and sporting sectors”. He went on to say that “we need our artists to continue to make us dream, particularly in dark times”.

When economic downturns come, funding for artists and writers are often cut. Unlike Germany and Canada, many governments see expenditures for the arts, sports and cultural sector as a cost rather than as an investment. Those who support the artists in their work – carpenters, tailors and seamstresses, hairdressers and make-up artists, and other support personnel - suffer the effects of budget cuts alongside artists.

The German and Canadian announcements demonstrate how we can help artists survive in times of economic crisis and continue providing us with the content that we crave and the entertainment that we need. With the cultural products that identify us as members of vibrant cultures.

How can governments generate the funding required during this transition to the new economic model? One way is by taxing and working with on-line cultural product distributors like NETFLIX, AMAZON, and others who are making a lot of money in national markets with transnational products. By having these companies pay local taxes and develop local productions, governments can level the playing field with tax paying local broadcasters and ensure continued local content development that sustains artistic production and distribution in a cost-effective way that also opens doors for international exposure thereby sustaining this important sector of the economy.

In this era of quarantine, the arts are keeping society entertained through literature, film, music, and television, not to mention virtual tours of museums and galleries. Without artistic content, we would be quite bored.

How can artists motivate the public to support new avenues for cultural dissemination by changing a consumption model that may no longer be fit for purpose in the 21st century?

Will audiences adapt permanently to the new distribution models for cultural products and services? Will they purchase subscriptions to televised broadcasts or webcasts of cultural performances? And how will we get artists to create their productions in a “broadcast and webcast friendly” package?
Governments have an important role to play in constructing a framework that encourages artists and the private sector to invest in cultural enterprises.

Tax policies and content regulations can help artists access funding and platforms on which to share their products.
But… is this enough?

While governments and the private sector should continue investing in sustaining the arts in all of their manifestations, what about the artists themselves?

By their very nature artists must be entrepreneurs. They must compete in a harsh and highly competitive environment, engage in fundraising for their projects, market themselves to audiences and customers, and adapt to changing market conditions.

This requires them to realize that society does not owe them a living unless they play a big part in ensuring their financial viability.

Arts faculties and training institutes must include basic business courses in their curricula so that artists are properly prepared to survive and thrive in a market economy. They must provide courses in basic fundraising, marketing principles, and the basics of finance and access to sponsors that they will require in order to fund their creative endeavors and achieve a balance between their creative success and financial stability.

In this, governments, the private sector and artists themselves have a role to play.

Governments can fund courses for artists to develop their business acuity, and the private sector can sponsor courses online in much the same way that it sponsors cultural and entertainment activities.

Hi-tech companies can also sponsor artistic education and activities in order to provide the content that their technology will require. They can play a major role in helping artists learn how to use the new technologies and platforms to reach audiences and monetize their artistic production.

This is the new economy and the new reality. Are we ready?

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