The Covid pandemic has had a devastating impact on the arts and cultural industries throughout the UK and continental Europe. For much of the UK’s creative sector the nightmare of closed venues and out of work cultural producers, performers and technicians is being exacerbated by the absence of a ‘cultural passport’ in the Trade and Co-operation Agreement (TCA) negotiated by the UK government with the European Union. Simultaneously, and accelerated by the lockdown, the continuing ‘digital shift’ is effecting radical changes to the way in which we produce and consume culture.

Against this complex background, what can and should we expect after the pandemic? What will be the effects on cultural production and consumption? What are the biggest emerging challenges facing the cultural sector and the broader ‘creative industries’, in a post-Covid world?

• Welcome remarks: Prof. Frances Corner OBE, Warden, Goldsmiths.
• Guest Presentation: Prof. Pier Luigi Sacco, Professor of Cultural Economics, IULM Milan; Head OECD Venice office and Senior Researcher, OPSI, Harvard University; formerly Special Adviser to the European Commissioner for Education and Culture, Tibor Navracsics, 2014-19.
• Chair: Caroline Norbury MBE, CEO, Creative Industries Federation and founding CEO, Creative England.
• Respondents: Dame Vikki Heywood CBE, Chair Festival UK 2022; formerly Chair, Royal Society of Arts (RSA) and Warwick Commission on the Future of Cultural Value; formerly Executive Director, Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) and Royal Court Theatre. Prof. Geoffrey Crossick, Distinguished Professor of the Humanities, School of Advanced Study, University of London; formerly Director, AHRC Cultural Value Project and Warden, Goldsmiths (2005-10).
• Concluding remarks: Dr Martin Smith, Visiting Fellow, ICCE, Goldsmiths.

Professor Pier Luigi Sacco is a distinguished commentator on cultural economics and the creative industries. His OECD presentation ‘Culture 3.0: Building competitiveness and innovative capacity through culture’, which describes three historic regimes of cultural value creation, has reached a wide global audience.

Prof. Sacco will give a 20-minute lecture to introduce the discussion. In responding, Professor Geoff Crossick will draw upon his experience as Director of the AHRC’s Cultural Value Project (final report, 2016) and his work with the UK Crafts Council (chair) and the National Film and Television School (NFTS). Dame Vikki Heywood will also respond, drawing on her work as chair of the Warwick Commission on the Future of Cultural Value (final report, 2015) and as chair of the government-funded Festival UK 2022. Caroline Norbury (chair), as CEO of the Creative Industries Federation and Creative England, is leading the UK’s creative sector lobbying of government in the face of acute disruption and sector hardship.

Following an intermission of five minutes, there will be ample time for audience questions and discussion.

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