The Covid-19 situation has hit artists in all Nordic countries hard. The closing of almost all cultural institutions and other artistic platforms results in unfathomable economic and artistic problems for all who create and perform art. There are no possibilities for live performances, and many of the institutions and founding bodies that usually pay for the arts are themselves hit by the covid-19 situation in a way so that even the possibility of paying the artists fairly seems gone.

The current climate of closed venues underlines the possibility and the necessity of building a united, Nordic cultural life that will be ready to receive all the works of art and music that has been created, unseen and unheard. And will, above all, be ready to fill the urgent longing felt all over and everywhere in the Nordic countries. Now more than ever before, we need art and the culture in which it thrives.

This current, catastrophic situation makes it so much more shocking to learn that the Nordic Culture Fund will face budget cuts from this year due to the Nordic Council of Ministers’ overall cuts in the budget for Nordic collaboration on culture. Cutting down budgets for art and culture at this moment in history is more than ever a bad investment. Art and cultural events are what we all crave and long for.

Instead of cutting the budgets of the Nordic collaboration on culture, investments ought to be made in this collaboration, so when the world returns, when this pandemic is over, the Nordic countries will emerge as the cradle of culture.