5 Takeaways From Emmanuel Macron’s Video Conference Announcing Plans to Support the Arts and Culture Industries in France

French President Emmanuel
Macron, facing sharp criticism for his perceived lack of concern
for the arts and culture industries during the pandemic,
announced plans to buoy the fields
during a video
conference streamed from the presidential palace on Wednesday, May
6.

The roughly half-hour
conversation was organized in response to mounting anger from
the nation’s artists, performers, and cultural
workers. On April 30, a
group of them published an open letter in Le
Monde reprimanding the President for “forgetting” the
cultural sector, which employs 1.3 million people.
Meanwhile, neighboring
Germany has already begun to reopen and has handed out
tens of millions of dollars to cultural workers.

Arriving to the conference with
his sleeves quite literally rolled up, Macron outlined new plans to
support workers. Here
are a few key takeaways from the conference. 

A Gradual Reopening of Museums and
Galleries 

“We’re going to reopen museums,
bookshops, record shops, [and] art galleries,” Macron said on the
call, while also stressing that these places would need to
adapt to
social-distancing guidelines.

Lockdown measures in France will begin to ease
on May 11, and Macron added that theaters and museums could start
reopening on June 2.  

“Cultural venues must be brought
back to life,” he said. “Artists must be able to create again and
to work together to reach audiences—even if, during this
intermediary period, we’re going to have to rethink a new sort of
relationship with audiences.”

Expanded Benefits for Performers and
Entertainers

But with live festivals and
performances canceled for the foreseeable future, the livelihoods
of those working in the performing arts and entertainment sectors
are hanging in the balance. 

About 100,000 of those workers
already receive special
rights and privileges depending how many hours they log annually.
During his call, Macron announced that these workers will have
their unemployment benefits extended to August 31,
2021.

The announcement was generally
met with satisfaction.

“This is a strong announcement
that goes in the right direction,” Denis Gravouil, the
secretary-general of Cgt Spectacle, a cinematography and
audiovisual trade union, told Le
Monde.

Culture Without a Public

Although Paris remains the epicenter of the pandemic in France,
a national lockdown, as well as bans on gatherings of more than
5,000 people until at least August, have also led to the
cancellation of regional
summer art festivals, including the Avignon Festival, one of the most
significant performing arts events in Europe.

Regions that remain relatively unaffected by the pandemic have
lodged complaints, but Macron stressed during the conference
that summer festivals cannot
and will not take place, and said that the French public’s habits
and expectations would have to change.

He said the coming months should
be ones of “learning and culture,” as opposed to travel and
leisure. (France has also imposed limits on international travelers
for the summer months). He added that artists would need to invent
new forms of culture, saying that “nothing prevents us from inventing something
else, in smaller forms with no public or little public.”

Summer Camps and Promised
Commissions 

Criticism of Macron’s handling
of the situation is largely rooted in the vagueness of his
initiatives, with the Le Monde letter calling
directly for a “precise plan.” 

But Macron declined to present
any specific details for his newly announced plan
for artists to work
with small groups of children in schools over the summer for
several hours as a day.

He also promised a “large
program of public commissions” that would be geared specifically to
artists under 30, but did not present details.

More Mixed Messages

Macron also seemed to fumble his
messages, suggesting that artists could work within schools a few
minutes after saying that many artists should remain on
unemployment. 

Moreover, his repeated emphasis
on supporting artists under 30 has confounded some
onlookers.

“Artists of all ages should be helped; often older artists have
more difficulty than younger artists as they don’t have a pension,”
French artist Laurent Grasso told the Art Newspaper. “I’d
be partisan to a campaign of public commissions that involves all
the artistic fields and serves to interrogate this crisis and the
world of the future.”

The post 5 Takeaways From Emmanuel Macron’s Video Conference
Announcing Plans to Support the Arts and Culture Industries in
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