On the impact of the Corona crisis on art and culture
Is the arts in a Sleeping Beauty? The Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) has published "Sleeping Beauty," a series of research notes on the consequences of the corona virus for the creative industries.
Whether bookstores, museums or the music industry: the Corona crisis confronts the creative industries with new problems. The Zurich Centre for Creative Economies (ZCCE) at the ZHdK is investigating central questions with a multi-dimensional study: What do the different sectors of the creative economy have in common? And what cuts have they had to contend with as a result of the Corona crisis? In the first part, the editors of the study "Sleeping Beauty" - Frédéric Martel, Romain Page, Simon Grand and Christoph Weckerle - make a historical comparison with the Great Depression in America; in the second part, they conduct interviews with creative artists from Zurich to New York; and third, they analyze current statistics on the creative economy in Switzerland. The fourth part of the study, which will be published in June, will focus on strategies around Swiss cultural promotion.
Snowball effect and digitization
Concerts, dance and theater performances are affected by the crisis at their core, since they are designed to bring people together. The situation of museums is also a cause for concern. Will tourists, who make up a large part of the public, return? How can the deficit in ticket sales be covered? In many areas, the snowball effect of the crisis is not yet even foreseeable: Canceled festivals, tours and other live events pose a threat to the entire industry complex. After only a few months, it is already apparent that the Corona crisis will affect the cultural sector for much longer than the lockdown periods last. At the same time, "the new normal" is accelerating the digitization of culture. New consumption habits are emerging, the duration of which cannot yet be estimated after the crisis: One example of this is so-called "concerts in-game," which take place on video game platforms and attract an audience of millions.
The Creative Economy in Switzerland in figures
What does this mean in terms of employment figures? The ZCCE analyzes the latest public statistics. The analytical grids used allow interesting conclusions to be drawn about the heterogeneity of the individual subsectors and show the strong interconnectedness with the overall economy. According to the study, the Creative Economy in Switzerland has reached a substantial size: between 2016 and 2018, a total of around half a million people worked in the Creative Economy in Switzerland, which corresponds to 11 percent of all employed persons in Switzerland. The Creative Economy workforce accounts for 15 percent of the overall economy in the greater Zurich region. Further analyses in the fall will show how the Corona crisis affects this. Basically, the editors of the study assume that specific practices and processes of creative artists are not a problem in the time of the Corona virus, but are precisely part of the solution. This is because the creative industries are in a position to "make radical statements about what future models might be possible."
About the ZCCE
The Zurich Centre for Creative Economies (ZCCE) is a competence and research center at the interfaces of science, business, politics and society. It analyzes developments in the creative industries, places current events in their context and finds sustainable strategies. The results of this work include Research Notes, which are published selectively, flexibly and promptly.
After more than ten years of research activity in the field of Creative Economies at the ZHdK, the support of the Zürcher Kantonalbank enabled the ZCCE to be established as a dedicated center for this purpose in 2019.
More information about the Zurich Centre for Creative Economies can be found at:
