The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged our social, cultural and economic model, our very way of life. The world as we knew it has been shaken, and in many ways it has been destroyed, which has meant that we have been forced to look for unique solutions.
In spite of being the first to suffer the consequences of the pandemic (cancellation of events, festivals, reduction of capacity, even complete closure at times), the creative and cultural industries have played a key role during the crisis. They conveyed positive messages, ideas that cut across different communities and countries, raising our spirits, reaching out to people (museums like the Prado set up online guided tours every morning). Their efforts have been crucial to sustaining our resilience across the world.
The creative and cultural industries’ ability to transform and reinvent themselves has once again demonstrated their value when it comes to innovating and building a different future. All this while the present was being destroyed. Creatives, as well as cultural institutions and businesses, saw their activity and their revenue drastically reduced in the first weeks of the pandemic. Its prolonged nature, coupled with uncertainty, compounded this critical situation.
Our response
Designing and promoting support mechanisms for these industries to cope and restructure themselves has become essential. They need not only to survive, but also to continue to make contributions and use their skills in other areas of society. There will continue to be a need for both these activities in the recovery of tomorrow. According to the European Commission, the COVID-19 outbreak has a negative impact on ongoing or planned activities within the framework of the Erasmus + programme. Therefore, those responsible for and involved in the CreO Project have prioritised the safety and protection of all participants. We have been modifying all our processes and continually re-adapting them in accordance with the COVID-19 regulations and requirements. To this end, it was paramount to keep a line of communication open with CreO Project participants. Obviously, the multiplier events with meetings of more than 30 people could not take place, and all in-person events were restricted to smaller groups, and even had to be moved online in some cases.
Through the application of lateral thinking (a specific way of organising thought processes which looks for a solution through unorthodox strategies or algorithms, which would usually be ignored by logical thinking), new synergies emerged. Online interaction between partners and participants was positive, and increased inclusion and participation in debates. This left us stronger and better prepared for a more high-tech future, where new generations create new models of communication, new business and management models, and new forms of digital and technological creation. A future that may be totally different from our present reality, and for which the pandemic has prepared us.