This year, the result will not be repeated – the losses of the US art industry have already reached $ 150 billion. And this is not the final figure.
According to the Cultural Sector Infrastructure Index, recently published by AEA Consulting, in 2019, a total of $ 7.9 billion was spent on the construction of new cultural and art buildings in the world – about the same as in 2018. Despite the impressiveness of this figure, even before the start of the pandemic, experts said that the number and size of investments in such projects by 2019 had reached their peak. The highest values were recorded in 2016 when the number of new projects reached 135 per year.
Of course, nobody could have imagined how the world would change due to the pandemic. Instead of a gradual slowdown in the growth of the number of new projects and a gradual stabilization of funds invested in construction, experts are talking not only about the suspension of many projects but also about the re-profiling of finished buildings for new needs. Most often, it goes about the needs of the healthcare sector.
From April 1 till July 31, 2020, the US art industry lost about 2.7 million jobs and did not receive more than $ 150 billion in commercial income. This is the latest data from the Brookings Institution think tank. At the same time, the areas of visual and performative arts suffered the most, the losses of which amounted to about 1.4 million jobs (about 50%) and about $ 42.5 billion. Among the professions most affected by the economic impact of the pandemic, the report cites not only artists but also photographers, musicians, writers, and actors.
Studying these results and, especially, comparing them with the figures of previous years, it is worth remembering that 2020 is not over yet, and we can only guess what else the 4 months remaining until the end of the year will bring us.
