Clarifying guidelines and closing gaps

The Federal Council has drawn up a very cautious plan for the gradual reopening of culture. It is encouraging that museums and library reading rooms will be able to welcome the public again in the first stage, and that children and young people will be able to pursue their cultural activities again. In principle, politicians are recognizing people's need for cultural activities. However, there are also different views within the cultural sector regarding the speed at which libraries should be reopened. Some point to successful and trustworthy protection concepts and call for a faster opening. Others fear that the urgently needed planning security can only be provided if the health situation is and remains under control. Several European studies have shown that cultural events are not a source of infection. It is now time to take this into account in communication and put an end to the stigmatization of cultural venues.

The entire sector agrees that what is possible should be made possible and the criteria for planned openings must be communicated in the coming days. For some it is necessary to be able to plan well in advance, e.g. for festivals, while others can react more quickly. But even short-term openings need clear guidelines: If a theater does not know whether it can accommodate a maximum of 50 people (regardless of room size) or 50% of its seats with good ventilation and only 33% with no ventilation, how should it sell tickets or have them reserved? How is it supposed to organize its crew for this? Nobody wants to call on their staff for the third or fourth time, then call everything off and perhaps compensate them with 80%, but only after months or not at all.

The cultural associations remain ready for a constructive and close exchange with the federal authorities to determine the next concrete steps. After all, an opening must be designed to be practicable. Conversely, there must be no obligation to reopen: A very large number of cultural enterprises are unable to cover their costs under relatively restrictive conditions. Here, the accompanying support measures remain vital.

Regardless of how quickly it reopens: The crisis and its economic consequences are far from over. Due to last year's production backlog, the many postponements and the long lead time for major events, it will still take many months before the cultural sector is back to normal, even in an ideal scenario.

The Culture Taskforce is calling on Parliament and the administration to

1. to close the gaps in the existing support and compensation measures for the extensive occupational ban in the cultural sector
2. simplify the processes to such an extent that the support funds reach the cultural professionals and companies in need in good time.

These demands are also supported by a growing number of thousands of cultural professionals in a petition to parliament:

https://www.change.org/culture2021 (Content and signature)
 

A first glance at the Federal Council's dispatch on the amendment of the Covid-19 Act is unfortunately not very optimistic. In addition to the retroactive reintroduction of loss of earnings compensation for cultural professionals, which is to be welcomed, many other demands that have been urgently put forward by the cultural sector for months have been ignored. These include improvements in the area of income compensation for the self-employed, access for freelancers (employees with short-term, mostly project-related contracts) to all culture-specific measures and better protection for event organizers.

The Culture Taskforce, which represents a broad alliance of associations from all areas of cultural work, has published its demands on the website www.taskforceculture.ch and is campaigning intensively for an improved and simplified package of aid measures.