Building resilience in the cultural and creative industries amid COVID-19

Art is deemed to be an expression of the human spirit because artists best express the human condition, for this reason the cultural and creative industry is integral not only to the economy but also to the human experience.

It is unimaginable to think what life would be like without the sound of music, the visual pleasure of paintings, the historical reminders brought by sculptures and monuments. The learning of different cultural expressions makes up our global village and is central to human development.

Traditional places, spaces and faces are becoming increasingly obsolete in the way that the sector existed before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Artist Patrick Sam from Namibia struggled to find offline and online spaces to connect with people as the traditional mediums were disrupted. He highlighted that Namibians have always embraced the cultural and creative industry because it brings unity and joy to society, but that does not necessarily translate into significant public/private investment for the sector. This is because the sector is deemed as an expression of people’s wants and not their needs.