Additional funds for culture in Basel

Cultural professionals and cultural enterprises can now apply to the canton for compensation for losses incurred in September and October 2020.

The cantonal government has approved additional funding of CHF 1.396 million for loss compensation in the cultural sector, which will be doubled by the federal government. This means that a total of CHF 10.894 million is now available for compensation to cultural workers and cultural enterprises in Basel.

From now until September 20, 2020, cultural professionals and cultural enterprises can once again submit applications for cancellation compensation. They can claim financial losses that are associated with the cancellation or postponement of events and projects or with business closures and were caused by government measures to combat the coronavirus in the period from September 1 to October 31, 2020.

Only persons and companies that are at least 50 percent active in the cultural sector are eligible. The definition according to the Federal Council's COVID Ordinance on Culture applies. Its interpretation and scope of application are specified in detail by the federal government.

Profit-oriented companies are treated as hardship cases by the Government Council if they are covered by the scope of the ordinance and there is a particular cultural policy interest. For these cases, the Government Council has set an upper limit for compensation of CHF 500,000 per profit-oriented company. In doing so, it is taking account of the importance of these companies for the cultural sector. At the same time, it is important to it to maintain proportionality in the context of the COVID measures for the economy. The Government Council dealt with the first applications for loss compensation from profit-oriented companies and approved funds for hardship cases totaling CHF 38,355.