The world is being shake in a way never seen before, after the COVID-19. The virus has affected practically all sectors of the economy and it was to expect that the culture would not be left behind.
In Colombia, the first case of coronavirus was registered on March 6, 2020. Nowadays, we have 1579 infected and 46 dead. Fortunately, the government decreed mandatory preventive isolation initially of 19 days from March 25, but yesterday it was extended a week more, as a measure to face the pandemic. However, before that, there were other measures that took place, on March 12, the President canceled all public events of more than 500 people and less than week later the government reduced massive public and private events from 500 to 50 people, and close all bars and clubs.
In Colombia, massive events such as the country’s most important book fair (Filbo 2020), the largest private music festival (Estéreo Pícnic), and the most internationally renowned film festival (Ficci) were cancelled. Theaters, cinemas, as well as fairs and literature meetings were closed. The restriction, which for now runs until the end of May – an optimistic scenario-, left 493 live music and 643 theater shows on the air, figures registered by the Ministry of Culture. This measures undoubtedly affected the economy, including the night time economy, describe as a wide range of activities from a concert, visit to the theatre, dinner or a night out at a club, involving hotels, venues, restaurants, bars, chain stores among others, that are estimated to bring about $3 billion every year and generates about 34,000 jobs and another 30,000 on weekends in Bogotá, Colombia.
To face this scenario on March 25, the National Government signed the Decree 475 “which dictates special measures related to the Culture sector, within the State of Economic, Social and Ecological Emergency”. With the decree, it is estimated that more than $ 120,000 million pesos will be allocated to face the effects of Covid-19.
However, this measures had generated discomfort in the sector since they are not newfangled measures and are only focused on the reality of the capital, Bogotá, not the reality of the rest of the country. For example, The second article of this decree contemplates the transitory allocation of more than $40 billion from the para-fiscal contribution of public performances of the performing arts; in other words, modifications to the law of the public spectacle. Taking into account than $40 billion pesos are in the hands of the municipalities that generate the resources for this law and can only be used for cultural infrastructure, but, in these moments of crisis, “we do not need to invest all resources in this purpose” claim the Ministry of Culture (2020). According with the Ministry of Culture (2020) the idea with this Decree is to make the use of these resources more flexible so that they can be used in projects and programs for training, production and virtual creation, in order to reach Colombian homes with a digital culture. But that is another challenge as the Colombian National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE) reports about half of Colombian households are connected to the internet.
Without a doubt, this pandemic is changing our lives, the way we perceive the world and unfortunately, Colombia in terms of connectivity is far behind in comparison to other countries, and social isolation is not experienced by everyone equally. For now, the cultural and creative industries have reacted by offering their cultural products and services online for free, from virtual visits to museums to downloading books online. However, not everyone has access to the internet, a privilege in a country like Colombia, which causes many to be denied the democratic right to benefit from culture.
This post was written by Greis Cifuentes, Greis is a Secretary of Culture for the City of Ibagué, Colombia. She is also a doctoral researcher at CCSE, UWS.
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