THE AFFECTS OF COVID-19 ON ART & CULTURE

Impact Overview

The arts are a valuable part of societal well-being whether it is private commissions, web design, photography, dance, theatre, architecture, or child education. The arts are integrated into diverse sectors of society, making up “4.5% of US gross domestic product(GDP), an amount larger than the share contributed by industries as diverse as construction, agriculture, and transportation.” The arts and culture have undergone major economic setbacks during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

The arts beautify our world and serve as a tool to help others cope, learn, and enjoy. The help and healing significance of the arts throughout covid can be found on the page “Art as a Tool”. To simply emphasize the economic importance of art the Covid-19 RSFLG Data and Assessment Working GRoup shares that “the value the arts add to the U.S. economy ($877.8 billion in 2017) is five times larger than that added by agriculture, and $265 billion larger than that of transportation and warehousing”. (graph included below) 

Throughout the pandemic, the unemployment rate of the Artist labor force increased by 5.2%. The arts are predominately intertwined with in-person events and interactions, so certain aspects of artists have struggled to maintain their practices. Others, like digital designers and photographers, have been able to flourish due to the increased online events and interactions. In fact, history has shown that the arts can be built stronger through social and economic crises. According to Cosslett (2020), “isolation has historically proved fruitful, and artists are producing new work all the time,” and the artistic projects which have burgeoned across the world since the beginning of the pandemic corroborate this statement. As a matter of fact, some of the most significant art movements (e.g., expressionism and modernism) emerged as a response to political and economic uncertainty (Moldoveanu and Ioan-Franc 2011; Euwe and Oosterlinck 2017)”. In total, though the artist labor force has been hit hard by covid, increasing the unemployment rate, art communities have found innovative ways to adapt, respond and continue on during this pandemic.