I’ll sit at the back of the cinema, leave a gap of four seats at the theatre, head to the museum on Tuesday morning when it’s quiet...
With all the devastation culture has suffered due to COVID-19, the worst could still be ahead… Cinemas, theatres and museums have long stood empty. It will be months since cultural institutions went into lockdown before we find out whether the closures made sense in comparison with shopping centres or gyms. One thing’s for certain, though: the COVID-19 pandemic has been the most devastating event for the cultural sector since the Second World War. It’s time to start thinking ahead.

Obviously safety will be on our minds when participating in culture in the future. The greatest development during the year since widespread closures – a rapid growth in popularity of consuming art and culture online – may end up backfiring as lockdown restrictions are eased. How do cultural institutions convince people who have taken to participating in spectacles, exhibitions and concerts via their laptop or smartphone to turn up to actual events?
For some people who are usually unable to attend cultural events in person due to disabilities or geographical or financial restrictions, online events have been a lifeline. The ubiquity of online culture, originally enforced by the pandemic, won’t disappear overnight. It would be impossible to tell so many consumers that we are going back to how things were, and that the days of free or virtually free content are over.

There is also the question of how to make a profit from cultural events held online. Kraków has a vast potential of culture and is already taking the first steps in marketing it. One of the most important elements has been the launch of the VOD platform PLAY KRAKÓW. The service has gradually built up an extensive library of concerts, theatre performances, recitals, meetings with authors, exhibitions and other events, recorded before and during the pandemic – and that’s just some of the content available to subscribers.
And so PLAY KRAKÓW is a step towards the future and a natural consequence of cultural events being forced to move online by the pandemic, following years of debates about what should be shown online and how. This is an important point for Kraków’s culture, because there’s certainly no going back: all events which are now available online must remain that way.
The launch of PLAY KRAKÓW has symbolically shifted the city’s culture to a hybrid reality; to an era of a coexistence of physical and virtual participation in culture. It is now up to individuals to decide whether to attend an exhibition, immerse themselves in sound at a concert or be moved to tears by a play or spectacle in “real life”, perhaps in a distant corner of the city, or in front of the screen from the comfort of their own homes.
One thing’s for certain – the physical aspect of art cannot and will not disappear. In the long term, it’s difficult to imagine concerts without crowds of music fans, empty seats in cinemas or echoing exhibition spaces. In order for artists to have an audience, the eternal connection between creators and consumers must be maintained, at least to some degree.

LGBTI Freedom of Artistic Expression report launch, photo by Joanna Gałuszka

The roaring success enjoyed by PLAY KRAKÓW since its launch shows that at the time when the pandemic makes access to live culture impossible, the platform provides a way of interacting with art and artists, and being able to access culture free or for a nominal cost is the perfect solution – for now. However, in the longer turn this model it would be ruinous for artists and creators, and individuals and institutions involved in promoting and disseminating culture. The municipal authorities are working on plans for adapting the platform for the time when ticket prices go up again.
The key elements are certainty and safety: audiences must feel sure that they are safe while attending cultural events. During the period between the first and second waves of infection (between June and October 2020), Kraków’s institutions tested a range of different ways for audiences to participate in events. The National Museum in Krakow prepared a one-way system around its galleries and extended its opening hours. Visitors could be sure that at any given time there were no more than a (low) set number of other people at the venue. They are also aware the increased ticket prices help ensure their safety.
This is just one example. During the crazy year of 2020 we trialled (and continue to trial in 2021) a range of solutions, and now the question is which ones will remain with us in the long term. We can be certain that both locals and tourists will focus on safety. Prior to March last year, no-one would have seriously considered that they can catch a deadly disease at the theatre or that they could pay with their lives for visiting an exhibition. The model of how culture can continue to operate must be taken into account in global discussions on how societies will function in post-covid days.
Kraków’s marketing will play an important role in quelling public fears and promoting events organised by the city or individual institutions as the situation gradually returns to normal. And the message must be clear: we are safe. Major logistical changes will surely be needed, such as crowd management, limited ticket sales, distributing visitors in auditoriums, improved ventilation and so on. Some emblematic (but not purely symbolic!) activities would form an important element of such campaigns to demonstrate efforts made by the Kraków authorities in placing the health and safety of audiences as a priority.

"Życia mała garść" concert at the ICE Kraków Congress Centre, 6.10.2020, photo by Klaudyna Schubert

Although it’s difficult to imagine right now, there will come a time when the pandemic is just a grim memory. But how do we market future events to potential audiences when 2021 remains so full of questions and uncertainties? Kraków’s authorities have a colossal amount of work ahead, although we should also remember that similar processes will be going on all over the globe – everywhere where there are cinemas, theatres, museums; everywhere where audiences want to feel completely safe.
The example of Hong Kong which experienced the SARS outbreak in 2003 shows that things can and do return back to normal. Of course the situation will continue to be monitored and certain limitations introduced during the pandemic remain in place, but the restrictions will ease with time. And so we will see the return of queues to the box office, theatres filled to the brim and whole families enjoying trips to the museum.
Although Hong Kong is far more technologically advanced than Kraków, it had no equivalent PLAY HONG KONG platform, so it didn’t have a chance to test the model of presenting culture in a hybrid format. We can certainly look to its authorities and residents for how to adapt to the new reality, but they will not tell us how to shift from presenting culture in the virtual world back to the physical reality. Or, in other words, how to encourage people to attend events in person while retaining new online audiences.
As I said earlier, the virtual and “real” worlds will continue existing side by side. A positive outcome of the otherwise tragic pandemic has been the acceleration of digital processes which would have otherwise taken many years to develop. Circumstances have forced us to gain new skills and sensibilities and show a readiness to take up new challenges. It is important to find a way to continue to function in this new time, both on physical and virtual levels.

Conrad Award, gala, 25.10.2020, Elif Shafak’s master lecture, photo by Edyta Dufaj

Many cities in Europe and the globe over are developing brand-new promotional strategies. They stress the importance of the internet as a way of reaching new audiences, eliminating limitations due to distance and ensuring events are safe to attend. The entire MICE industry is an excellent example. The way we think about the future must take into account completely new parameters.
We hope Kraków won’t become notorious as a “plague city” as has happened to Bergamo, Milan, Madrid, Barcelona, London, New York and Paris. Fortunately global public opinion doesn’t think of Kraków in terms of being an epicentre of the deadly virus. And it must acknowledge that the pandemic has dealt a major blow to cities associated with culture, the arts and artists. The current uncertainty is the perfect opportunity to rethink the way we present Kraków’s culture and find new ways of promoting it.
I am delighted to see that the city authorities are already engaging with this idea. I like the play on words proposed as part of the promotion of the latest cultural and entertainment hub of the Wesoła district. Branding it as a “hospitality district” brings to mind its past (it was once home to numerous hospitals) and the future as a welcoming space is a clear indication of the direction we could – and should – be taking.
This is especially important now that a fresh deck of cultural cards is being dealt on the global scale. We are seeing a great opportunity to send out an effective, positive message. Kraków must do what it can to play alongside the best.

And play its best game.

The text was published in the 1/2021 issue of the “Kraków Culture” quarterly.

Rafał Romanowski – Editor-in-Chief of the film and media portal “Re:view/thereview.pl”, product manager, journalist and filmmaker. He has been published in periodicals such as “Gazeta Wyborcza”, “Polityka” and “Liberte”. His main focus is on trends in technology, business, marketing, culture and aviation. His greatest passions are Bauhaus and books about cities.