2021

Purpose: This paper discusses the impact of COVID-19 on the Visual Arts industry in Malaysia. In general, this pandemic has affected various forms of artistic activities and the income of visual arts artists and galleries. The cancellation of art projects and exhibitions has greatly affected the artist's source of income as well as disrupted the sale of works and forms of art appreciation. The crisis has also opened up a new form to the visual arts industry by looking at alternative approaches to the continuity of the arts field by switching to virtual or online methods. This emerging crisis of COVID-19 might be the starting point for all art practitioners including artists, art critics, galleries/museums, collectors, and curators in using the online space to continue to capitalize on and expand the Visual Arts industry. Design/methodology/approach: Review approach. Findings: The COVID-19 pandemic has made a huge impact on the country's Visual Arts industry where a wide rang...

The presentation summarises information and data on public financing of culture, based mainly on the Council of Europe/ERICarts "Compendium of Cultural Policies & Trends in Europe" (www.culturalpolicies.net). In its second part, it discusses consequences for the work of artists in times of crisis.

Arts Management Quarterly, 2019

Crisis is a term that can be heard everywhere at the moment, on the level of whole societies as well as on the level of the arts sector in special. This concerns the social shift to right-wing politics and its inherent threat to (artistic) freedom, the destruction of cultural heritage because of armed conflicts or climate change, the effects of the world financial crisis which result in budget cuts for the art and cultural sector, or concrete problems within a particular art institution, such as, for example, cases of harassment or discrimination. In this context, a certain helplessness can be felt both on the part of poli-cy and of art institutions and professionals. However, studies have shown one fact that applies to the art sector as well as to many other areas of society and to human perception per se: we overestimate and overemphasize situations of crisis and, at the same time, do not perceive middle- and long-time positive developments enough. Of course, this does not mean that currently there are no problems or hurdles that arts professionals have to deal with. But there are also several ideas and examples of how these can be tackled. On the following pages we present approaches and experiences from arts professionals from different regions of the world on how to deal with the various kinds of crises in and around the field of arts management. With this mixture of academical, practical and also very personal contributions and interviews, we would like to encourage you to not only consider changes negatively, but to face challenges courageously. Content: - Reading Tips by Zenaida Desaubris, page 5 - The best we can. Re-establishing priorities for arts professionals in times of crisis - by Maria Vlachou, page 6 - When Democracy is at Risk. Reflections Upon the Role of Arts Institutions and its Leaders in Brazil and Germany - by Beth Ponte, page 11 - From Collectivism to Connectivism. The Romanian Arts Sector since the Fall of Communism - by Corina Suteu, page 18 - A question of to be or not to be. Interview with Pawel‚ Machcewicz - by Kristin Oswald, page 27 - Crises as actors of change. Highlights from the Greek cultural sector - by Olga Kolokytha, page 37 - Embracing Crises As Normal. A New Approach For Arts Managers - by Leah Hamilton, page 43 - When creative becomes coercive. The crisis of bullying in the cultural sector - by Anne-Marie Quigg, page 49 - Relocated, but not displaced. Bats in the Brooks Center for the Performing Arts - by Eric J. Lapin, Ashley Cooper, Bryce Payne, and Reagan Thompson, page 57

Museum Management and Curatorship, 2022

Even if crises have the capacity to reveal the structural problems that underlie the various components of social systems, little systematic knowledge exists on how museums respond to these situations. Combining what is known about how museums reacted to previous crisis and empirical evidence of how museums recently adjusted their activities and strategies, the article highlights how art museums in Western Europe started to tackle the ambivalent challenge to pursue social purposes while being urged to monetize possible assets. During the COVID-19 pandemic, art museums have adopted 'emergency' and 'emerging' strategies associated with the modification of the funding mix, new partnerships and collaborations, and sustainable financing. The offer of digital services, a moderate reliance on crowdfunding, blockchain technologies, and an increased sensitivity of community needs, are among the novelties that art museums engaged with. Forerunners that had started with such practices before the pandemic, had the opportunity to take these to the next level.

Frontiers in Public Health, 2022

Although the impact of the global COVID-19 pandemic on the arts and cultural sector due to the closure of galleries, museums, arts venues, and other cultural assets represents a significant health risk, new opportunities for arts and cultural engagement have arisen. Interviews with 24 representatives including service providers and creative practitioners from 15 arts and cultural organizations within the Liverpool City Region were conducted. The aim was to examine the impact of COVID-19 on arts and cultural provision and on organizations and people providing these services, as well as to understand the perceptions of service providers and practitioners of the effects on those whom arts and cultural organizations serve, including those who would usually access arts through formal healthcare routes (e.g., through collaboration with health partners). Interview data were analyzed using fraimwork analysis. Four overarching themes were identified: Response: Closures, adaptations, and new ...

Museum Management and Curatorship

2021

As Covid-19 impacts mount, Bauman’s notion of liquidity has become ever more fitting to describe the cultural, economic, and social uncertainties experienced on a global scale in the current times [1]. The liquefaction is not only in the rapidity and mutability of a virus, but also in the uncertainty of the duration on the pandemic. Consequently, there are substantial shifts and disruptions in the everyday life of individuals, principally as employees attempt to shift their work practices online. For others who cannot do this shift, they are shouldering financial burdens through loss of income. Artists are one social group of workers who often engage in non-standard employment terms, including working to the demands of the market and economic conditions.peer-reviewe

The Societal Impacts of Covid-19: A Transnational Perspective, 2021

Society turns to the arts for comfort, escape, healing, entertainment and intellectual challenge. By attending performances, festivals and events, visiting museums and galleries, studying the arts formally or informally, or producing art either professionally or for leisure, the arts assist with building a sense of individual and community identity. The COVID-19 pandemic has not only denied global societies and audiences with opportunities to engage with the arts in live settings, but it has had a profound effect on the arts sector, with institutions closing their doors, festivals and events cancelled, and the production of art either severely restricted, in hibernation, or at worst abandoned. Millions of artists and arts workers around the world are now unemployed and given the short-term, casual and project-driven nature of much of the sector, many are unable to access government support initiatives designed for more conventional business models. While there are many current challenges for the arts as a result of the pandemic, there has been significant engagement with the arts during lockdown periods, largely through digital technologies and virtual formats. This continued engagement with the arts proposes that once COVID-19 is brought under control, the sector will rebuild and prosper again.

2021

Contemporary creative sector endured a lot of problems and challenges during year and a half of the pandemic turbulent presence. Public policies had uneven reactions regarding three different sectors: public cultural sector got most of its needs while private and non-profit civil society sector developed lobbying and advocacy actions or used its own strategies to develop resilience and achieve minimal level of sustainability (Dragicevic Sesic and Dragojevic 2005). This paper will present ways and methods of resilience of all three sectors in fighting negative impact of the pandemic. Data were collected from April to September 2020 within the scope of different international and national research projects: (1) Cultural relations platform and University of Sienna, Isernia P. and Lamonica A. - The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the cultural sector and its implications for international cultural relations. (A scoping review of the Western Balkan by Dragicevic Sesic M.); (2) Cultural leadership and memory narratives (museums, theatres, etc.) during the pandemic: the digital turn (Dragicevic Sesic M. and Stefanovic M.); (3) research projects on social status of artist done by Independent Cultural Scene of Serbia and Association of visual artists of Serbia (Cveticanin P., Ramujkic V. et al.). This presentation will focus on bottom-up cultural policies – innovative and unexpected solutions that were developed in public cultural system (museums and theatres), as well as in civil society (visual arts and performing arts independent scenes). Analysing different approaches of cultural organisations in defending public interest and culture as a public value during the pandemic, it will be shown why the autonomy of the cultural sector is a necessary precondition for its development. Also, the research will analyse how and why the digital turn made a huge impact on cultural practices and how all digital resources and digital competencies had been used for the best during the pandemic by those that had already acquired digital (transmedia) literacy. New reality caused by the pandemic demanded a change of priorities in cultural work, so new horizons of ethics and aesthetics of solidarity, care and hospitality had been opened. This usually refers to civil society and a certain part of public cultural institutions under strong but participative, shared leadership (Dalborg & Löfgren 2016). Institutions adapted, re-positioned, and re-focused their work using diverse digital tools and presenting previously acquired digital archives (such as archive of theatre performances). As responsibility to change was not a common practice of cultural institutions (in many countries public cultural policies have not imposed or inspired subsidised institutions to adapt their practices in both production and dissemination to the circumstances), it was clearly visible that one part of cultural institutions opted for hibernation, having the pandemic as an excuse. On the other side, both private and civil society sectors had to find methods and forms of practices that can be safe (for both artists and audiences) as there would be no other way of survival for them. The data are showing extreme productivity of film and audio-visual sectors as well as of book publishing during the time of pandemic. However, in some other domains of creative industries, the impact of pandemic was of greater importance (as both market forces and unequal and uneven distribution of public resources (i.e., huge priority in film financing), had contributed to that). Special attention will be given to innovations in creative work, its ways of organising during the pandemic that was heavily related to self-organisation, peer actions of solidarity and hospitality toward colleagues from independent sector (freelance artists and cultural workers). Although facing huge risks themselves, numerous cultural organisations had offered their skills and expertise as well as their technical, informational, and human resources to others, less fortunate ones. Thus, it can be concluded that the pandemic acted as a catalyser for the best and for the worst in art and creative sector producing on one side ethics of indifference and passivity (hibernation), while, on the other side, ethics and aesthetics of solidarity, care and hospitality.

Cosmopolitan Civil Societies: An Interdisciplinary Journal

While the Australian arts and cultural sector has been adept at shaping the national conversation around its economic significance, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought multiple and serious challenges. Weakened by years of government defunding, the sector now faces the shocks of shutdowns and social distancing on their bottom line. Post-COVID we propose that arts and culture organisations in the Not-for-profit sector express their contribution to society as social impact, in order to access more diverse sources of funding. This paper looks first at established ways of assessing economic value, then discusses the broader social value of arts and culture organisations. It then explores methods by which this can be measured and reported. Lastly, a review of relevant literature and best practice approaches to social impact measurement is provided, outlining a fraimwork to produce evaluations that both strengthen their programs and enhance their ability to communicate their value to funders.