The Ongoing Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Traditional Art Industry in North-Central Ethiopia

Abstract

The main aim of this study was to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on traditional art and craftworks in North-Central Ethiopia. The study was conducted using a descriptive study design. A total of 72 samples were selected for a questionnaire survey, and 16 informants were contacted for interview purposes. The study found that 79% of the art businesses were closed, creating more visible and systematic challenges. The pandemic has created challenges for artists to change their work from crafts to mask production, traditional art and crafts pedagogy, and women’s labor forces. Additionally, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, 80.56, 81.94, and 81.94% of traditional artists and craftsmen’s physical mobility were paused, the artistic freedom and knowledge transfer activities were denied, and the ability to work their artistic activities was reduced, respectively. On the other hand, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, 77.78% of traditional artists and craftsmen were worried about being unemployed and 76.39% were in disturbing situations due to the coronavirus. Furthermore, 61.11% of respondents did not feel motivated or optimistic about the future of their work as a result of corona.

1. Introduction

Art industry is one of the tertiary economic sectors and the backbone of many countries’ economies. Most of the time art sectors are expressed in other similar terms like creative industry or entertainment sector or cultural industry or creative economy. Many researchers used these terms interchangeably [1, 2, 3]. The art industries are an industry that comprises a range of human activities in creative visual, auditory, or performing artifacts, expressing conceptual ideas or technical skills. The Britain Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) define the term creative industry as “those industries which have their origin in individual creativity, skill and talent and which have a potential for wealth and job creation through the generation and exploitation of intellectual property” [4, 5]. Creative industries/art industries are any economic activities that are concerned with the generation and exploitation of knowledge and information. These economic activities majorly incorporate craft, design, fashion, film, music, performing arts, photo and video graphs, museums, galleries, libraries, architecture, advertising, visual arts, TV and radio, computer games, and many others. These arts/creative industries have been seen to become increasingly important in economic well-being and we call them as the “twenty-first century industry” [6].

In addition to the economic benefits, the development of art and creative industries bring forth cultural value. These industries promote social inclusion because the nature of their activities links social groups together and strengthen cohesion among peoples. They also play a key role in the educational system, providing inputs that facilitate social and cultural education. Cultural and creative or art industries have indirect effects on other development areas due to the transverse nature of the industry [7]. In general, art industries contributed to the creation of jobs; increase of local economic incomes; enhancement of tourism management; reinvigoration of urban areas; retention and attraction of talent and investment; and social integration and rationalization of infrastructure. A dynamic creative sector will also help to empower women, young population, rural groups, and even isolated communities by using their national cultural heritage, and their own knowledge and creativity [8, 9].

Crisis was heard everywhere at the moment. According to International Monetary Fund (IMF), 2020 is likely to be the worst year for the global economy due to the sudden outbreak of coronavirus (COVID-19: CO implies Corona, VI implies Virus, D implies disease, whereas 19 indicates the year of its outbreak (2019)). The art industries were also the major sector affected by both natural and manmade calamities. COVID-19 is one of the twenty-first century global pandemic that greatly paralyzed the world industry; art sector is one of its target. After the first infections in China at the end of 2019, the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has continued to spread across the world. No continent has been able to escape this virus since the declaration as a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11, 2020; COVID-19 has become a global emergency, given its impact on the entire world population and the economy [7, 10, 11].

The arts sector serves artistic and educational missions through myriad occupations filled by individuals who work in full time, part time, hourly, seasonal, and freelance capacities. Based on the American Bureau of Economic Analysis reported in March 2020, the arts and culture workforce contributed $877.8 billion, or 4.5% to the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2017. The arts sector is an economic engine by providing employment opportunities for more than 5 million workers in the United States [12].

The effect of COVID-19 on economies around the world has been unprecedented. While evidence of this impact is only beginning to emerge, it is clear that the economic damage has been particularly severe for Small and Growing Businesses (SGBs) in emerging markets. Just as small and growing businesses, art and craft sectors of the economy are majorly tested in their “sustainability” [13]. A multitude of shows, performances, festivals, film shoots, book fairs, and other cultural events was canceled, and many cultural spaces, bookstores, cinemas, and museums closed their doors because of the outbreak of COVID-19. Therefore, the pandemic creates a lasting impact on the life and livelihoods of the employees, organizers as well as the art industry in general. United Nation World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) affirmed that the outbreak of COVID-19 as a world pandemic affects the fundamental rights of access to culture, the social rights of artists and creative professionals, and the protection of a diversity of cultural expressions [14, 15]. Generally, the overall impacts of the pandemic on the art and craft sector are just becoming apparent and with the overall impacts still unknown.

United Nation World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) called on governments, intergovernmental organizations, civil societies, and educational institutions to mobilize their resources to study the multidimensional impacts of the pandemic on the art industry and recommend implementation and policy direction. The government of Ethiopia also encourages research-based intervention on the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic in all sectors of the economy as well as its impact on the social and cultural life of the community. Ending surveys studies are conducted in different parts of the country on the issue of health matter.

It is apparent that there are huge number of traditional night club, traditional souvenir shops, producers, and suppliers of traditional crafts in Amhara region, particularly in Lalibela, Dessie, and Woldia as well. As repeatedly disclosed in media, all these sectors are closed their doors and both art and artists become victims of COVID-19 pandemic. Above all, despite the fact that the region is known for such type of art, currently, they could not find due attention by researchers and government as well. We have been conducted and affirmed in our preliminary assessment that both the magnitude of the current impact and its long last impact are not yet studied so far. Therefore, this study was developed in order to fill the gaps.

2. Objectives of the study

• To describe the continuing impact of COVID-19 pandemic on traditional art and craft sector supply and mobilization of input and output resources in North-Central Ethiopia.

• To analyze the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on traditional artists and craftsmen’s life in the study area.

3. Methodology of the study

3.1 Approach and design

To achieve this subtheme, the researchers were guided by using of mixed-method study design. It encompasses both qualitative and quantitative approaches. Using of mixed research approach is very significant to gain the advantage of or the strength of both qualitative and quantitative research that can provide the best understanding of the issues under study [16]. Furthermore, a mixed approach is important to reconcile the limitations with the representativeness of the sample of the qualitative approach. In this regard, this study employed both research methods, so as to increase the validity of the quantitative data and truth worthiness of qualitative data. In research concept, research design is an idea that expresses the procedure for collecting, analyzing, interpreting, and reporting the data. Thus, this subtheme followed a descriptive cross-sectional survey research design, where the data collection process is conducted at a point in time (one-shot data from the sampled study population). This cross-sectional descriptive design was used to examine the issues at hand by using a concurrent triangulation approach because both quantitative and qualitative data were gathered simultaneously [17]. In order to assess subtheme one (the impacts of COVID-19 on the arts industry) the researchers utilized both qualitative and quantitative data.

3.2 Data sources, method of data collection, and sample frame

The researchers collected both primary and secondary data. The primary data were collected by using a questionnaire, interview and focus group discussion (FGD), and personal observation techniques. The sample frame for this subtheme are traditional art performers-from actors to musicians, crafters, souvenir shoppers, culture and tourism officers, suppliers of traditional art and crafts sectors, and marketers in traditional art and craft. The personal observation was conducted in traditional arts center and crafts areas.

4. Sampling techniques

The samples were selected by using a purposive sampling technique. The samples were selected from the major towns/cities of the region (Dessie, Lalibela, Woldia, Haik, and Kombolecha). We contact 118 people for questionnaire and 16 people for interview to accomplish this subtheme. A group of people gathered and discussed the issues under investigation. We have five FGDs (one in each town/city). The researchers were taken samples in the major cities by considering the large number of art and crafts sector personnel in the cities. Therefore, we developed the following sample proportion in each city and town (Table 1).

No.	City/Town	Number of samples	Remark
1	Dessie	38
2	Lalibela	43
3	Kombolecha	20
4	Woldia	11
5	Haik	6

Table 1.

Sample proportion table of traditional artists and craftsmen.

5. Data analysis and interpretation

5.1 The impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on traditional art sectors

5.1.1 Demographic characteristics of the respondent artist and craftsman

As shown in the demographic chart above, 59.7% of the respondents were male and while 40.3% were female. The respondents were young because almost 51.4% and 37.5% of the respondents were found in the age range of 18–28 years and 29–39 years, respectively. Regarding educational level, 52.8% and 36.1% were secondary education and bachelor’s degree completed, respectively. These figures indicated that the majority of the respondents were male, young, and have some educational level with secondary and bachelor (Figure 1).

Figure 1.

Demographic characteristics of the respondent artist and craftsman. Source: Researcher’s survey, 2022.

As shown in Figure 2 above, 38.9% of the respondents experienced 10–15 years in the sector of the art industry. About 27.8% of the respondents had working experience from 1 month to 5 years, while 13.8% had more than 15 years of working experience. Regarding the type of organization they worked in 47.2% worked in the public sector, while 33.3% worked in the private sectors. Only 5.6% and 13.9% worked in cooperatives and self-employed, respectively. According to this survey information, more than half of the respondents worked more than 10 years in the sector and experienced (Figure 3).

Figure 2.

Type of organization and work experience of the respondent artist and craftsman. Source: Researcher’s survey, 2022.

Figure 3.

Sector they work. Source: Researcher’s survey, 2022.

5.1.2 The multidimensional impacts of the pandemic on artists and traditional craftsmen’s life

Besides the general impacts of the industry, it also has a great impact on the lives of traditional artists and craftsmen. The survey result indicated in the following chart also indicates the status of the art business during the lockdown. Almost 79.2% of the art business was closed in the study area while only 20.8% of art businesses are opened (Figure 4).

Figure 4.

The status of the art business. Source: Researcher’s survey, 2022.

The interview with traditional artists and craftsmen in our study area agreed on the fact that COVID-19 has created more visible and systematic challenges, especially in their economic instability due to loss of income, irregular working conditions, and more time business shutdown. This problem is also exacerbated because of the gaps in our cultural policy. One of our interviewees indicated that Ethiopian cultural policy is very weak to handle such global catastrophe and support artistic workers and crafters. Due to the weakness of the cultural policy, many artists and craftsmen left alone with a low priority of government support and “uncertainty incentive.”

The major impact of COVID-19 on the artists, artistic lives, and craftsmen during the pandemic was, it totally break their social connection. One of our interviewees describes these challenges as “due to COVID pandemic my social connections with audiences, peeks, social networks, business partners…therefore, I am not able to create artworks, feeling of lonely, able to perform art work and unable to plan the future.” On the other hand, many respondents said that COVID-19 greatly affected their life and created a plethora of issues, from possible cancelations of orders to a lack of awareness about the disease. They affirmed that their business and practices of the craftsman by the disease because many sales opportunities have been postponed and the remaining canceled. As one of our traditional cloth designers told us “I am always worried about the employees working with me all the workers in my small garment the lives depends on it; we expect more work in the coming July and September 202/22, however due to the economic slowdown our customers did not make any order for the new year festivity.” The COVID-19 crisis has had a multidimensional impact on all aspects of our lives around the world, but some sectors have been hardly affected. Among these sectors, traditional art sector is one of the sectors greatly affected. Many exhibitions, festivals, traditional art concerts, events, meetings with artists, and meeting that need the involvement of artists and musicians are also canceled. In this section, we present some of the short- and long-term impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on the art sector in the study area from FGD and interviews of the respondents. In general, the following multidimensional impacts are observed.

1. Event cancelation: Museums, traditional bars and restaurants, and theatrical activities were closed for more than 6 months. For example, Dessie museum closed almost a year. Due to these closer many events were canceled and no travelers visited the areas.

2. Fundraising activities slowed: Due to coronavirus, many sponsors and donors of traditional artists, musicians, and performing artists slowed and some canceled. Therefore, many artistic sectors lost their sponsorship and donation revenues for their service.

3. Revenue lost: Many of the economic sectors of the area were greatly affected by COVID-19 pandemic. Many of the tradition art sectors, restaurants, hotels, festivals, and tourism-related businesses completely closed in the study area for more than 3 months. Some were also partially closed for almost half of the year. These also created a huge economic loss in the study area, especially in the areas of Lalibela and Dessie.

4. The capacity of the industry was reduced: Due to the reduced revenue, the potential loss of sponsors and donors the institution lost its institutional knowledge and a reduction of capacity to handle programs and services.

5. Many art and craft workers changed from crafts to mask production: The great challenge the art sector faced is the reopening and practicing of the art business cannot happen overnight, like other business because the art sector business requires an up-to-date skills and psychological makeup and long-term awareness creation among the audiences and customers.

6. Its impact on the traditional art and crafts pedagogy: For almost a year many traditional arts and crafts educational systems ceased in the study area. In our country in general and in the study area in particular digital education via video and practical online platform was impractical. Therefore, many technical and vocational training in the field of art and crafts work stopped totality.

7. Its greater impact on women labor forces: COVID-19 created a devastating impact on the women labor force globally, especially those works more dominated by women as “frontline workers” such as art and hotel sector. According to World Health Organization report from 104 countries, 70% of workers were exposed to health risks. Among these, 43% were women because of the nature of the work they engaged (WTO, 2020). Due to the fact that women are over-represented in the industries most affected by the pandemic, such as recreation and entertainment sector, craft manufacturing, education, and other service sectors, they are highly affected by the pandemic. One of the female respondents expressed her feeling on the impacts of COVID-19 on the labor force of women “for the last 11 years I working as traditional cloth designer (handloom) in addition to the informal household works but now I am out of work and always working as a meal planners in the house…when I calculate the working hours as compared to the previous I spend additional 2 hours because all the families see my hands even we consume more food when we are in home… even I sometimes worried about we may affected by the food shortage.” In overall way, the pandemic affected the art industry greatly. The survey also attested that more than 80% of the art and traditional businesses were affected. It is shown in the chart below (Figure 5).

Figure 5.

The overall effect of the pandemic. Source: Researcher’s survey, 2022.

5.1.3 Working conditions of traditional artists and crafts during the pandemic

The outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic created a complex working environment and lives among artists and craftsmen in the study area. The first and foremost impact of COVID-19 pandemic is the behavioral change of art audiences. One of our informants said that “I did not believed that demands will be restored as a previous level” (performing art organizer, September, 2021). FGD discussants added that due to COVID-19 pandemic the behavior and attitude of the audiences of art and performing art changed for a prolonged time. The pandemic affects the spending power, visitation behavior due to the economic recession, and lower socioeconomic status of the participants due to COVID-19 pandemic. Other studies conducted by Shugoll research survey found that 29% of the respondents believed that they will wait 6 months and more to return to the theater again.

Many traditional artists and craftsmen are affected by the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic. Many of nightclubs, music performances, and contests [the workplaces of traditional artists and craftsmen] closed for the long period of time (almost a year). This has created a complicated life and loss of sources of revenue for these portions of the art workers (Figure 6).

Figure 6.

Working conditions of traditional artists and craftsmen. Source: Researcher’s survey, 2022.

As indicated in the above chart the working conditions of traditional artists and craftsmen during the pandemic are shown. From this survey result, 80.56% of the respondents said “Yes” for the question the pandemic pause your physical mobility? And, 79.17% said “Yes” for the question the pandemic stop the grants and loans from the GOs and NGOs? 81.94% of the survey respondents affirmed that due to coronavirus, their artistic freedom and knowledge transfer activities were denied. The ability to work in artistic activity was reduced by 81.94% among the artists and traditional craftsmen during the corona. Besides, 77.789% of the traditional artists and craftsmen were developing a feeling of worried about being unemployed due to coronavirus and 59.72% of the respondents were worried about new technology making them redundant following the coronavirus. On the other side, 76.39% of the surveyed respondents develop a feeling of disturbing situations during the lockdown. However, the majority (61.11%) were feeling motivated and feeling good about the future of their work and 68.06% were having work during the lockdown.

5.1.4 The impact of COVID-19 pandemic on traditional art and craft sector suppliers and on the mobilization of input and output resources

The outbreak of coronavirus created a series of blows on traditional arts and craft sectors’ raw material mobilization. The lockdown affected every production and distribution of raw material supplies. The transportation system and the attitude change of the suppliers created a bottleneck for the input mobilization. When we say attitudinal problem one of our interviewees of traditional arts expressed that “our suppliers and customers assumed and think that traditional cloth and craftwork considered as a luxury category of products… no one want to buy such products in this difficult time. Therefore, we totally stopped our work for a long period of time …to tell you truly almost a year we are out of business due to coronavirus. Really it is a difficult time to survive…” The survey result also strengths the FGD discussants and interviewed participants. As shown in Table 2, 83.3% of the art industry suppliers did not provide input for the art industry principals during COVID-19 pandemic era. The same is true in the mobilization of input resources because 88.9% of the mobilization of input and outputs did not properly hold during the lockdown. However, even with the problems exist in the mobilization of the input and output resources, 73.6% had a plan to invest more in their business in the next 5/10 years, while 26.4% did not have the plan to invest more in their business in the next 5/10 years.

Questions	Yes (%)	No (%)
Does your suppliers did provide input for your business during corona	16.7	83.3
Is the mobilization of input and outputs properly held during the lockdown	11.1	88.9
Do you have a plan to invest more in your business in the next 5/10 years	73.6	26.4

Table 2.

Supply and mobilization of input and output resources.

Source: Researcher’s survey, 2022.

5.1.5 The implications and mechanisms used on the future development of traditional arts and crafts industry

The outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic has many implications for the art business in the study area. This was also assessed by a survey in the traditional art business personnel and shown in the above chart (Figure 7). As indicated above due to the outbreak of coronavirus, 69.44% of art business owners and runners could not meet the cost of input for their business. Additionally, 72.22% of the respondent art business owners could not make utility payments like water and electricity, and 77.78% of respondents were forced to borrow from their families and friends to run their businesses due to the impact of COVID-19 pandemic. About 59.72% of art business owners faced a shortage of cash to pay the salary of their employees because of coronavirus. The most visible impact of the pandemic is on the future scale-up of the art business because the majority (93.08%) of the surveyed respondents affirmed that could not scale up the operation of the business. On the other hand, 94.44% of the respondent art business operators could not produce or deliver service as before because of COVID-19 pandemic in the study area. The outbreak of the pandemic also had a great impact on the tax payment. The survey also affirmed that 59.72% and 66.67% of the respondents could not make tax payments in full and could not make tax payments on time due to COVID-19 pandemic, respectively (Figure 8).

Figure 7.

The implications of COVID-19 on the business. Source: Researcher’s survey, 2022.

Figure 8.

Skills and resources responding to COVID-19 pandemic. Source: Researcher’s survey, 2022.

The survey also assessed the skills and resources available to respond to the impact of the coronavirus, including future audiences behavior (54.17% important and 29.17% very important) innovation/digitalization (41.67% important and 44.44% very important), technological capacity (30.56% important and 58.33% very important), leadership support (40.28% important and 50% very important), training (51.39% important and 33.33% very important), staff skill (37.5% important and 52.78% very important), finding new funding sources (33.33% important and 59.94% very important), and response in responding to the impact of COVID-19 pandemic. Organizational restructuring, staff restructuring, introducing new programs and partners, and managing staff safety and security were also important to respond to the impact of coronavirus in the future of art business in the study area (Figure 9).

Figure 9.

Time required to get back to normal business. Source: Researcher’s survey, 2022.

More than half percent (53.2)% of the art business operators needed more than 1 year to return back to normal business and life in the study area while the remaining needed less than 1 year to return back to their normal business (for more see chart 9 above).

As shown in Figure 10, the majority (44.4% and 34.7%) of the respondents needed loans with the low-interest rate and provision of subsidies from the government, respectively. Very few (1.4%) needed subsidies in the tax form from the government. Some others (19.4%) needed to allow running their business operation without any prohibition.

Figure 10.

Assistance needed from the government. Source: Researcher’s survey, 2022.

On the other part, 30.6% and 29.2% of the respondents’ traditional artists and craftsmen prefer shut down their businesses completely and shut down their businesses partially, respectively. Only 15.3% of the respondents continue to run their business as a short-term method as a survival mechanism and some others (13.9%) wanted to change their business line and also some others (9.7%) apply for loan used as a mechanism during the lockdown (Figure 11).

Figure 11.

Methods used as a survival mechanism during the lockdown. Source: Researcher’s survey, 2022.

6. Conclusion and recommendations

6.1 Conclusion

The study concludes that 79% of the art businesses were closed. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic traditional artists and craftsmen’s physical mobility was paused, the artistic freedom and knowledge transfer activities were denied, and the ability to work their artistic activities was reduced. On the other hand, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, 77.78% of traditional artists and craftsmen were worried about being unemployed, 76.39% were in disturbing situations, and 61.11% did not feel motivated or optimistic about the future of their work as a result of corona. Due to the coronavirus, 83.3% of art business suppliers did provide input, while 88.9% of the mobilization of inputs and outputs did not properly hold during the lockdown. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has many implications for the future development of the art industry in the study area. The study also assessed the skills and resources available to respond to the impact of the coronavirus, including innovation/digitalization, leadership support, training and staff skill, organizational restructuring, staff restructures introducing new programs and partners, and managing staff safety and security were identified.

6.2 Recommendations

Based on the finding of the study, the following possible recommendations were forwarded.

• The national, regional, and local government offices should work on the improvement of working cbl aonditions of the traditional art and craftsmen because the working condition of the workers in the study area is in miserable condition during the lockdown and it also has a psychological, social, and economic impact in their life.

• Empower the suppliers of the art industry via training and capacity-building works about the COVID-19 pandemic issues.

• Encouraging and supporting traditional artists and craftsmen/art business operators to use technology/digital media and other technology usages.

• Support the art business operators in training capacity-building work in leadership and management and finding new funding sources from the government bodies.

• Government officials and culture tourism offices at different level consult the art business operators in finding new programs and partners, staff skill development, staff restructuring, and organizational restructuring works.

• The government should provide loans with low-interest rate and provision of subsidies for art business operators for sustainability and continuation.

Acknowledgments

We acknowledged Wollo University Research and Community Service Vice president office, Research and Publication Directorate Office for supporting and financing the study. Sincerely, we would like to thank to all our respondents of this research work, who helped us to give their time during the interview process, and who share their ideas for the success of this study. We strongly acknowledged the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestion for the entire development of this scientific paper.

Conflict of interest

The researchers declared that no conflict of interest in this particular study.