Resilient cultural sector essential for recovery
According to the council, the cultural and creative sector can play an essential role in the recovery from the coronary crisis: 'as a generator of jobs, as a binding agent for society and as a source of imagination and creativity for major social issues'. To achieve this, however, the sector's resilience must be strengthened. The Council for Culture's advisory report 'Sterker uit corona; een agenda voor herstel en transitie' outlines what is needed.
The advice follows the investment agenda recently sent to the informateur Invest in culture for everyone which states that a structural increase of 477 million euros in the state budget for culture is necessary in order to make optimal use of the potential of culture for recovery and transition after corona (see also BK Information #4-2021). The council's advisory report poses a number of questions: How can we make the best use of the momentum of the crisis to take a big step forward? How can we accelerate inspiring developments from the recent period? How do we prevent the old, familiar practice from swallowing us up again? How do we anticipate a more resilient and inclusive cultural future? How do we invest intelligently in culture? How can we make this sector more attractive, both financially and socially?
The council identifies digitisation of the supply as a particularly promising development for making culture accessible to a wider audience. It also sees opportunities for embedding cultural education more firmly in education. Because it is still unclear how quickly and to what extent audiences will return to cultural activities and what efforts this will require, the council advocates a lenient policy with respect to performance agreements.
the digitisation of the supply, in particular, is a promising development in making culture accessible to a wider audience
The council recommends three tracks for the recovery and transformation of the sector:
- Mitigate the damage and accelerate recovery through support and recovery packages, encouraging reopening of the cultural sector and extending the grant period.
- Help accelerate necessary and promising transitions by means of innovation labs and other investments and by reviewing the subsidy schemes and performance agreements.
- Strengthening the sector on a sustainable basis through a more modern structure of the system, a more flexible and generous financing palette, the stimulation of fair practice and embedding cultural education more firmly in education.
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