This campaign on AnOthermag.com will be devoted to supporting creative workers by showcasing their postponed or cancelled projects – fashion collections, art and photography exhibitions, films, and more – as well providing much-needed cultural relief
The impact of the Covid-19 outbreak, and our attempts to contain it, are already insurmountable – and yet it’s only just begun. The pandemic is confronting our society and economy with challenges and change at an unprecedented rate and scale, and the creative industries are not exempt. Cultural events have been cancelled, institutions closed, along with actual creative working spaces – culture itself is facing an existential threat. Which is what inspired London-based art director Zak Kyes to post an image on Instagram earlier this month, bearing the slogan ‘Culture Is Not Cancelled’, urging people to practise social distancing, yes, but not to cancel culture.
“Culture is designed for contact and community is at its core,” he wrote. “As designers our work requires proximity – with colleagues, clients and collaborators. Without the support of culture many of us, from freelancers to small businesses, will be out of work.”
This Instagram post has spawned a movement, spearheaded by Kyes, which he talks about in his interview with AnOthermag.com, published today. It also inspired a campaign we will be running throughout the course of April which, in tandem with the ‘Culture Is Not Cancelled’, will be devoted to supporting creative workers by showcasing their otherwise postponed or altogether cancelled projects: fashion collections, art and photography exhibitions, films, and more – hopefully inspiring, informing and providing some much-needed cultural relief in the process.
Follow the #CultureIsNotCancelled campaign on our website, Instagram and Twitter, and check out the official Culture Is Not Cancelled here. There, the #CultureIsNotCancelled assets are available for usage by those who work in the culture industries around the world.