Why the arts industry should be treated as essential
Throughout the pandemic we think the majority of people would agree that the culture industry have been the hardest hit of them all, they were the first to close and according the Governments road map they will also be the last to reopen. However, a lot of the industry believes this to be unfair for the primary reason that even during lockdown the arts and culture industry was continuing to help keep the country afloat. This was through a variety of reasons, stretching from keeping us all entertained during lockdown, so we didn’t turn into brainless zombies, to communicating crucial messages to help save lives and limit the effect the virus would have on our country.
The latter seems to be the more convincing argument. That all the industries and products require visual communication to help support and sell these things processes such as graphic design, illustration, photography and videography. Going onto say visual communication was foundational to the UK lockdown's messaging. Who didn't see the yellow and green graphics asking us to 'stay home and save lives'?
“There has been an entrenched stigma associated with creativity in the UK for so long that it isn’t considered a ‘real’ career by so many people.”
However, the Arts and Cultural industry hasn’t just helped with presenting crucial messages for the UK public. They have kept us all entertained throughout lockdown to prevent us from going mental from boredom, allowing the industry to realise the centrality of the arts and cultural industries to the quality of mental and physical health of the nation.