Activism and bottom-up narratives of change in Greek cultural policy: the case of #SupportArtWorkers

Abstract

All over the world, Covid-19 revealed long-term issues concerning the structural vulnerability of artists and cultural workers. In Greece, during the first lock down, an independent initiative, Support Art Workers (SAW), brought to the spotlight artists and cultural workers and their needs and narratives about what needs to be changed in Greek cultural policy. Organised around and expressed through an online and off-line activism campaign, SAW enabled them to articulate their particular status and needs—both in that particular timing, and with forward-looking approaches on overall policy adjustments required in Greece. Such an advocacy-rooted mobilisation holds particular interest in a country where cultural policy has focused predominantly on cultural heritage, largely ignoring contemporary cultural production. Through focus groups and interviews with artists and cultural workers in 2020 and in 2022, we capture the main narratives of artists and cultural professionals in Greece and what has remained from this mobilisation.