A new report ‘Reshaping policies for creativity: addressing culture as a global public good’ released by UNESCO has called upon governments across the world to improve labour protection and wages for artists and cultural workers. Commentary in The Guardian noted that the global creative economy had lost over 10 million jobs due to the pandemic and that “Government spending on creative industries was declining in the years preceding the pandemic, and COVID led to a collapse in income and employment.”
It notes that while the whole sector has experienced significant detriment, women have been disproportionately worse off. And while digitisation “became more central to creation, production, distribution and access to cultural expressions” the challenges of the “streaming value gap” means that the digital environment does not provide sufficient income to support a professional career.
UNESCO’s assistant DG for culture notes that while “people’s global consumption of, and reliance on, cultural content has increased … at the same time those who produce arts and culture find it increasingly difficult to work.”
The report is available at: https://www.unesco.org/reports/reshaping-creativity/2022/en