Effects of the corona crisis in the cultural sector

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The Boekman Foundation investigated the consequences in 2020 of the corona crisis for organisations in the cultural and creative sector: both the damage done to the organisations and freelancers within the sector and the effects of the support measures are portrayed in the publication. At the end of May 2021 appeared 'Unequally affected, unequally supported. Effecten van de coronacrisis in de culturele sector'.

The sector has been hit hard by the corona measures. Organisations that depend primarily on audience revenues have been hit hardest financially. Some of the cultural organisations have invested in digital activities over the past year, but have not been able to generate sufficient audience revenue to offset the loss of turnover.

The government support works, but does not sufficiently reach everyone. As an initial reaction to the corona crisis, the national government mainly introduced generic support schemes. It quickly became apparent that most of these were not sufficiently tailored to the specific situation of a large part of the sector.

State aid works, but does not sufficiently reach everyone

In the course of 2020, the various authorities have been increasingly successful in responding in a timely manner to the coronation measures and making specific support packages available to cultural organisations. The majority of OCW's support in 2020 went to the multiyear subsidised organisations. Without this support some of these organisations would have ended up in the red. The organisations which are not subsidised on a multiannual basis have to contend with the largest decrease in income and turnover. Cultural organizations that gained a relatively large amount of their own income in 2019 were relatively the hardest hit by the corona crisis and are currently receiving comparatively little corona support. 

Download the publication here Unequally affected, unequally supported

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