‘Closed Until Further Notice’. Policy Towards Culture by The Polish Government During The COVID-19 Pandemic First Wave

When the pandemic broke out in Poland, the regular cultural activity had to be stopped. The government undertook a series of measures, mainly economic/ fiscal and legal/ regulatory to support culture. The purpose of the paper is, first, to analyse the application of diverse cultural policy instruments by the state authorities to support cultural and creative sectors (CSS) in Poland during the first wave of the pandemic, with special focus on independent artists, creators and performers. Second, it intends to examine the reception of such a support by cultural workers, based on semi-structured in-depth interviews (IDI).

The analysis shows poor general situation of the CCS in Poland, which became more evident under the crisis. It is due to underinvestment in culture and negligence in the cultural policy, including cultural education, which has resulted in reluctant attitudes towards cultural workers by both the general public and the authorities. Independent cultural workers, performing precarious forms of work, have been offered quite limited aid compared to public and commercial organisations. Nonetheless, they undertook diverse activities online, mainly for free, to maintain good relationships with their public and not to be forgotten by them, as well as to express their creativity. Their reception of measures undertaken by the authorities, not only relative to financial support, but also to legal and organisational solutions is mainly negative.