Nerd podcast #12: Jeroen Bartelse of the Covid Taskforce Creative and Cultural Sector: It remains to be seen how quickly people can return, and how many people return.

Jeroen Bartelse is not only director of TivoliVredenburg in Utrecht, the former director of the Cultural Council is also a prominent member of the Taskforce that lobbies for the cultural and creative sector to support culture in times of Corona. Marijn Lems and Wijbrand Schaap look back with him on the first corona year, summarised in a beautiful book published by TivoliVredenburg, but we are also looking at how to move forward, with the zzp'ers, and with the test society. 

'There are legitimate ethical and moral concerns about the test society. We as a task force are also wrestling with this. The law may be necessary, but we also have very big concerns. We could open in the cultural sector without testing because there are very good, and proven safe protocols. It takes far too long now.'

Not enough support

'We are currently calculating again, as we did in March last year and the summer, to map out what the damage is. We are doing that to make it clear to the minister what the damage is. In the end, all credit to the minister, who has managed to do it anyway. Whether it is enough: the answer to that is no. It remains to be seen how soon people can return, and how many people return.'

'Our first concern was to ensure how the support would reach the self-employed. we first assumed a trickle down effect: by continuing to commission artists and self-employed people, their income could be guaranteed. The full lockdown drew a line through that and the generic packages for the self-employed that are very meagre. You fall back to welfare level. That's where blows fall. What you see now is that the institutions are managing. that is very important, because if they don't manage, everything collapses. But the artists and self-employed are the child of the bill. Some maker schemes work, but part of the sector is not saved by them.'

Lots of outflow

'There are many people who have moved on to other professions, people from the hospitality have switched to the medical sector, technicians have started working in construction. I am quite worried about whether we will still have enough qualified staff when we start running at full capacity again. We are not alone in recruiting. But this is the time to become more inclusive.'