Dramatic decline in self-employed in cultural sector - Culture Monitor shows growth among architects and designers

Of the 1910 self-employed people still working behind the scenes of the performing arts in 2019, only 1090 will be left in 2022. So what we suspected turns out to be true: technicians have gone up onto the roof to install solar panels and heat pumps, audience workers found a destination in healthcare. Although the Culture Monitor does not capture that migration, it is clear that this year's edition shows well how hard the Corona pandemic has struck the cultural sector. 

Boekman, the government-million-dollar foundation that collects figures and facts on the cultural sector, reports in a press release today that - despite the decline in the number of self-employed people behind the scenes - the number of self-employed and other flex workers across the sector actually increased by 8,000 during the lockdown years 2020 and 2021, from 141,860 to 149,830. This growth seems to be particularly attributable to the creative business services subsector (with, for example, industrial designers and architects).

Although the complete overview will be available online from 31 January, it is already becoming clear how much the creative sector in the Netherlands seems to be divided into an economically strong part (industrial designers and architects) and a highly cyclical one (everything to do with art). This is quite important for mutual solidarity within the Creative Coalition, which gathers the two extremes of the economic spectrum.

Fortunately no index

The figures will be presented on 31 January, and are as always still a bit controversial. After all, there are quite a few apples and oranges to be compared, so the average that comes out will say less with each additional dataset added. Fortunately, Boekman has moved away from the Culture Index, which actually gave a figure to the sector. 

In any case, what is clear from the above is that individual developments can provide much cause for further action. So that devil is in the details. Clarity, not always Boekman's strong point, is therefore essential. We may discuss this further on Wednesday. (The meeting to present the monitor is already full, so we will make do with the online event).

Zeeland

Another detail that troubles Boekman is the lack of data on diversity and inclusion, that is, how many people with physical, economic or mental challenges and people of different cultural backgrounds and skin colours are actually working in the sector. Those figures, for obvious reasons, cannot be recorded in detail either, of course, and about the past they are not there either. 

Moreover, the collection of figures has not always been flawless. When researching the culture monitor for the province of Zeeland, for example, did the entire performing arts sector not cooperating. This was due to a combination of factors, but was also due to a lack of understanding on the part of the researchers. So question becomes, for those invited tomorrow, to figure out how to make the new codes meaningful in the next monitor.