Corona Insights: Culture is necessary for society, especially in times of crisis

Since the intelligent lockdown started in the Netherlands, the cultural sector has virtually come to a standstill.

This hits the sector very hard. In addition, more than 60% of the cultural labor market in the Netherlands are self-employed. During the discussions about the necessary government support package for this sector, Minister van Engelshoven emphasized that culture matters, especially in this time of crisis, and she managed to arrange 300 million in additional support for the cultural sector. “A cool example” according to Jan Brands, Director of Cultural Connection.

According to poet Ramsey Nasr, we now need culture, creativity and imagination to reshape our society. Brands wholeheartedly agrees. He is therefore positive that a movement has finally started in the Netherlands that recognizes that the taken-for-granted nature of culture has changed and “that culture is more than two actors and three museums”. But there is no real understanding of culture in the Netherlands yet.

The misunderstanding surrounding culture
The cultural sector is bigger than agriculture and employs a lot of people, but there is a lot of misunderstanding about the sector. Brands makes the comparison, “everyone knows and understands what sport is, but with art and culture that is much more difficult.” According to him, this is partly because people always make a strong distinction between paid and unpaid art. “Art and culture is not just Orkater, but also the writing clubs, photography clubs and reading clubs, how we all shape this society.”

Culture in crisis

What Brands was already afraid of and what he now sees happening is that this misunderstanding surrounding culture also influences the financial pecking order during this crisis. According to him, this is partly because the cultural sector is very fragmented and many personal interests are put first: there is not much solidarity. Hard work is now being done behind the scenes to limit the financial damage, but this is made more difficult by the fact that the labor market in this sector consists of 60% self-employed people who are now in big trouble and who, if things continue like this, will have a wealth of experience, knowledge and passion is lost. Brands: “The emancipatory effect of that 300 million from common resources is very great.” However, the most crucial thing now is that the municipalities get behind it, since the vast majority of the subsidy comes from the municipalities

Hopeful

He is very hopeful about the wave of emancipation that is now taking place, even though he realizes that it will take some time before you see the results. In addition, as in many other sectors, the current crisis also seems to bring positive developments, especially in the field of digitalization. It also applies to the culture sector that people have become a lot more creative and productive. Brands therefore calls for making use of this in the development and transformation of new business models. However, he does guard against the 'massive save-your-tickets' campaigns of the moment, which, according to him, do not take into account the sacrifices it requires. According to Brands, the question for your own supporters to show solidarity with something that they themselves are affected by and are part of reflects (again) the misunderstanding of the 1-on-1 relationship between visitors and practitioners of art and culture. in the Netherlands.

Photo: Kees Hummel