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- Author: Abigail Gilmore x
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This chapter takes an ecosystems approach to examine the responses to the pandemic of cultural sector organisations, local government, private sector partners and stakeholders in the ‘exceptional case’ of Greater Manchester, the first devolved UK city region. Through analysis of qualitative interviews with city-regional cultural leaders and policy-makers and with a focus on two case studies, the Greater Manchester Arts Hub and the cultural strategy for Salford, Suprema Lex, we consider how local actors and initiatives were able to leverage place-based knowledge, networks and resources to find solutions to the impacts of Covid-19 which nuanced the national policy response. The chapter finds that a combination of existing networks and values-led frameworks, cultural sector leadership and strong local political buy-in helped to galvanise epistemic communities to test and create new practice. This also helped mitigate the established ‘pecking order’ of arts and cultural organisations locally, laying the ground for more inclusive place-based cultural policy post-pandemic.
This book reports on the findings of an eighteen-month UKRI funded mixed-methods
research project that took place in England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and
Wales between September 2020 and November 2021. It provides a comprehensive
overview of the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on the UK’s cultural sector,
identifying implications for policy, practice and the sector’s future direction.
Over eleven chapters, the book summarises the local, regional and national
policy responses to the crisis, and provides statistical analyses of the impacts
on the UK’s cultural workforce and audiences’ responses to the pandemic. These
insights are further illustrated via detailed case studies of cultural
sub-sectors of theatre, museums and galleries, screen industries, libraries and
festivals, interviews with cultural leaders and an ecosystem case study of the
Greater Manchester city region.
The book identifies recurrent themes
emerging from the research, commenting on policy responses, audience confidence,
shifts to digital engagement and civic responsibility, organisational practice
and recovery. It offers a robust analysis of the short, medium and longer-term
impacts of Covid-19 and highlights their implications for cultural
practitioners, organisations, funders and policymakers. The unique contribution
of the book lies in the presentation of findings which highlight the challenges
faced by cultural practitioners, organisations and audiences from different
backgrounds, regions and art forms. Using lenses which focus on both macro and
micro levels, the book provides fresh insights into the implications for
research on, with, and around the cultural sector, highlighting possible future
directions for arts management, audience research and cultural policy studies.
This introductory chapter presents the rationale for the wide-ranging research project that informs this book. It provides a summary overview of the research context and outlines the aims and objectives of the book, describing and justifying the mixed-methods methodology and the sampling mechanisms deployed. The chapter discusses the overall approach of the research and outlines the areas of synergy between the different strands of the study to draw out common objectives and themes between the different chapters. Its core aim, however, is to set the scene for the rest of the book. It does this by providing a brief analysis of the issues facing the UK’s cultural industries prior to the pandemic. These issues explain the structural challenges that hampered the cultural sector as the Covid-19 pandemic hit and progressed. The final section of the chapter contextualises and introduces the following chapters and offers readers a narrative arc to guide them through the book.
This chapter concludes the analysis presented in the book. It reflects on the continuities in the conditions of cultural and creative production and consumption that characterise the pre- and post-pandemic years in the UK. While the pandemic was hugely disruptive, as the book demonstrates, the case studies, national and regional analysis, sub-sectoral and art-form-specific discussions, and various methodological approaches all foreground the ongoing impact of inequalities in the cultural sector. Rather than being products or consequences of 2020, these trends and structures were exacerbated, rather than created, by the pandemic. This chapter situates that sense of continuity in an international context; between and across sub-sectors of the creative economy; in relation to cultural leadership and the civic role of the arts; and in relation to future audiences for culture. The chapter concludes by reflecting on the implications of the book for cultural policy scholarship.
This chapter explores the national policy responses to the coronavirus pandemic and its effects on the cultural sector in the UK. Drawing on empirical research and policy analysis within Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England, led to some degree by the central UK Government in Westminster, we develop a narrative account of the unfolding of public health regulations, safety measures, funding and support schemes for stabilisation and recovery of the sector, its institutions, audiences and workforce, between the period of March 2020 and the end of 2021. This account is chronicled by three main phases of lockdown, recovery plans and continued uncertainty, and framed by two key propositions: firstly, that despite their often fractured and reactive nature, the policy responses in the UK provide an insight into the values and significance attached to arts and culture by national governments and assemblies and, secondly, that they indicate the distinctive characteristics of governance networks of the devolved nations and their relationship to Westminster. While there are commonalities between the four nations’ responses, such as the relaxation of grant eligibility criteria, unprecedented public funding, and continuing attachments of cultural recovery to policy objectives such as high street regeneration, there were also distinctions characteristic of the policy assemblages operating within the devolved nations, reflecting their political priorities and normative values.