Hi @noemi. Sorry I haven’t been very active in this discussion, although I have been thinking a great deal about the role of culture in our current COVID-19 dominated society, and particularly the implications post COVID. My view is that the other side of the coronavirus epidemic will be very different to the world we left behind at the start of 2020. Many people will have lost their lives. Many more will be grieving or wounded or scared. Many jobs and livelihoods will be gone, along with businesses, charities and cultural organisations. Certain former dreams of people working in the cultural sector may be irrelevant or impossible to deliver because they were built on foundations that can no longer support them.
The pandemic may mark a boundary between certain older institutions, support systems, roles and relationships, and new ways forward that are likely to be quite different. From my perspective, the role of culture (broadly defined) and the arts (also broadly defined) will be central to the discovery of a livable answer. Through culture, experiences and viewpoints are exchanged; we understand difference and tolerate opposition. Culture is the space where we meet and learn to live together, Culture may be one of those keys to recovery and the values that will shape the next chapter of our history. We now need fresh thinking about that new chapter.
You ask what I am seeing happening in the cultural networks of which I am a part. There is a lot of thinking going on, and some practical initiatives too. I have compiled a document that summarises some of the actions of a few of the main European cultural networks. This is developing all the time, but here is an outline of what I am aware of.
Cultural Neworks and Initiatives Related to the COVID-19 Pandemic .pdf (1.8 MB)
Please include me in any reflections or actions in the cultural or artistic spheres linked to Edgeryders if I can add value or offer support. I’d be please to do that.
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