Public Support for Culture and Concern for Artists

By: Jeff M. Poulin

With the world faced with the COVID-19 pandemic today and the need to rebuild our societies tomorrow, culture should be at the heart of the response. Culture brings inspiration, comfort and hope into people's lives. To harness this potential, the Culture 2030 Goal movement, in the context of its engagement in the United Nations 2030 Agenda, calls on UN agencies, governments and all other stakeholders to act.

The International Music Council calls on governments to respond in respecific ways: responses to this pandemic should aim to be inclusive and look at a broader framework of inequality and challenges to sustainable development, including climate change and disaster risk reduction. The assertion that nothing will be the same in the aftermath of the crisis is becoming commonplace, and there is a call to rethink the way we live, work, produce, consume and relate to nature. But we too often fail to realise that culture is both a source of inspiration and a means of realising our thoughts and ideas, that culture makes it possible to mend the social fabric, to forge new forms of solidarity, to create new spaces in which to draw the energy needed to meet together the intense challenges facing us.

Governmental leaders should center youth and creatives. We must act today to support cultural communities, sectors, actors and agents where they are facing negative impacts from the pandemic, in order to ensure that they can survive the crisis, and are able to play their part in the recovery tomorrow.

Some movement has been seen. Over 130 Ministers and Vice-Ministers of Culture joined the online meeting convened by UNESCO to discuss actions to bolster the cultural sector, which is facing unprecedented upheaval due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The ministers spoke of the direct effects of the current crisis on tourism, museums, cultural production and artists, as well as the measures that they have taken to mitigate the impact of the crisis. They reaffirmed their commitment to intergovernmental dialogue and international solidarity in order to strengthen and unite their efforts.

According to this synopsis from UNESCO, whilst countries are at different stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, many have already begun to undertake impact assessments to address not only the short-term impact but also to devise strategies in the longer term. For a great number of governments, the expansion of digital technologies will be a major part of the strategy. The UAE noted that “we must begin discussions on a holistic digital cultural economy and plan to support culture that does not easily translate in the virtual world.” Yet, as many Ministers pointed out, culture is also a collective experience of our shared humanity and it will be important to revitalise human contact when it is safe to do so.

But safety of health and wellbeing is not the only concern for creatives and artists. While these ministers are convening, Freemuse, an international NGO concerned with artistic expression, published its new report State of Artistic Freedom 2020. It details an in-depth analysis of 711 acts of violations of artistic freedom in 2019 in 93 countries. It shows widespread attacks on freedom of artistic expression on a global scale as practices of censoring artists’ voices continue.

Freemuse research notes the damning effect of nationalist, populist politics as already leading to increased restrictions on artistic expressions, with a marked deterioration in countries where this right has traditionally been protected.

In 2019, it documented that 42% of all imprisonments of artists concerned criticising the government, with Europe the highest offender for imprisonments related to artistic expressions (42%). Governments were again responsible for 55% of all acts of censorship, affecting 847 artists and artworks. Politics was also the key issue behind the detention of artists, with 56% of artists detained on these grounds. Music remains the most frequently targeted art form at 32%, but visual art closely followed at 26%. 

So, we must ask ourselves: Even if we gain the support from governmental decision-makers that we seek, are we safe to be creating and critiquing of our leaders? If we center young people in debates about the future, offering their views on the actions of the past, will they be safe?

We have work to do beyond just the health concerns of the present, to ensure our rights for thee future.