The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the culture and media sector was high on the agenda at the first meeting in 2021 of the Nordic Council of Ministers for Culture. The ministers also agreed on budget priorities for the future.

After an extraordinary year for the cultural sector in all of the Nordic countries, the agenda for the meeting of the Nordic Council of Ministers for Culture (MR-K) on Tuesday included two high-profile reports on the culture and media sector and the pandemic. COVID-19 has had a major impact on culture, and all of the Nordic countries have introduced wide-ranging support packages.

“ The adaptability of artists and others involved in culture and the media has been impressive under difficult conditions. The reports identify areas of cultural policy in which it is extra-important to keep Nordic co-operation going – it is more important than ever,” says Annika Saarikko, the Finnish Minister of Science and Culture, who chairs the MR-K in 2021. 

The ministers commissioned Nordicom at the University of Gothenburg and the Swedish Agency for Cultural Policy Analysis/Telemark Research Institute to write the reports and provide fresh information about highly topical policy needs at both national and Nordic level.  To address the challenges posed by the pandemic, the ministers earmarked funds for a follow-up analysis of actual changes in the Nordic cultural sectors’ cultural-policy goals, funding schemes and budget structures.

To read the full article and the reports click here

Photo: Libia Castro & Ólafur Ólafsso