Art Will Survive

Art historian and picture researcher, Josine Meijer, examines how the art world is changing its landscape in the coronavirus era for now, for the future and possibly forever.

- Josine Meijer

Businesses are closed, people are worried about their work, their homes, their families and friends. They’re concerned about where to get milk, bread, flour, and what’s going to happen to their gym memberships.

And yet the world still turns. Not least the art world. With artworks behind locked doors around the world, there is, nevertheless, hope for the art industry, emanating from the galleries and also from the artists. There are remarkable efforts in this time of crisis, green-shooting out of despair and hope in equal measure.

Governments are proclaiming the funding they have put in place for art institutions, although whether it will be enough to see them through the COVID-19 closures remains to be seen. In Singapore, the government has set aside S$1.6 million in subsidies; in the UK, the Arts Council has pledged £160 million, while in the US, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York reported facing a US$100 million loss during closure in the pandemic and will be heavily reliant on its US$3.6 billion endowment. Smaller, less-renowned galleries in the US and many others in every city around the world will not have this luxury, and survival is going to be a serious challenge for those outside the nationally funded sector.

Donations are starting to appear around the world, with the super-wealthy stepping up to the plate in these difficult times, and it could well be that some of the money finds its way to the arts. But it’s a difficult ‘sell’ when there is so much hardship in so many other areas.