Advisory paper #2 for Department for Communities: COVID-19 & provocations for a cultural recovery strategy

This paper focuses on Northern Ireland’s creative economy with specific reference as per the brief to ‘arts and culture’. The term ‘creative economy’ has been chosen deliberately to reflect the broad spectrum of activities - commercial, non-profit, blended enterprise, and voluntary - that make up artistic, cultural and creative life in Northern Irish society. All of these activities should be within the view of a cross-cutting cultural recovery strategy.
The starting point of this paper as dictated by the Department for Communities’ brief is to ‘revisit the draft Culture and Arts Strategy 2016 - 2026 in light of COVID-19’ and to produce a ‘provocation paper’ for a cultural recovery strategy. Some revisions were made during the process and an additional advisory paper produced to outline the conditions for freelancers as part of the emergency case for support. This is not a consultative report and does not draw on primary evidence. It is instead a rapid desk review of existing materials to inform and shape key issues and prompt some priorities.