Heritage assets, fairs and museums. Places of encounter and presence in times of pandemic

Since February 2020, our everyday habits have undergone a process of radical change. Initial news stories from China about the COVID-19 outbreak seemed far removed, and this perception of distance made us feel safe. However, as time went on, the situation evolved into an unstoppable crescendo that has ultimately impacted all aspects of billions of lives. Everything came to a halt: work, school, culture … to be progressively restored via the only viable strategy available: the deployment of distance modes of delivery. As the emergency escalated, governments around the world identified different levels of response. Social isolation arrangements meant that people would be confined to their homes for an unquantifiable length of time. Many parts of the cultural sector were particularly and severely a!ected by the lockdown, given that they are usually perceived as the places of encounter and exchange par excellence. Some workers were offered temporary unemployment relief, while others had their contracts put on hold. Cultural institutions began to redefine themselves and reprogramme the immediate future, choosing between suspending their activities while waiting, and working to identify the most appropriate means by which they could remain active at a distance. They set out to invisibly heal a breach perceived as irreparable, via a process that saw each individual cultural operator seeking to establish new expressions of the notion of sustainability, as evoked in Agenda 2030.2 This document, produced by the United Nations in 2015,3 called for all actors, collective and individual, to pursue change in the form of 17 sustainable development goals. It o!ered a guide to determining what was truly sustainable, necessary and meaningful at this time of uncertainty, as well as to revisiting existing prospects and plans – Agenda 2030 suddenly took on new relevance. Cultural institutions were now faced with a novel challenge to their priority status as public services. The extraordinary time of the pandemic forced us to pause and consider the importance of such places as open spaces of exchange that are part of, and facilitate the construction of, our collective identity. Here, in the dual role of organisers and citizens who missed the cultural interaction with museums, we examine the case of Fa’ la cosa giusta! (Do the right thing!)4 – an event on the themes of critical consumption and fair trade. This example is compared to other international initiatives, to reveal how, in a moment when it became impossible for people to visit museums, museums took themselves to the people. In recent years, Fa’ la cosa giusta! has encouraged the participation of museums and cultural heritage sites with a view to jointly exploring an alternative approach to the cultural experience, as well as slow, sustainable forms of tourism, and rendering culture more participatory. Here we present a chronological account of the steps that led to this event being cancelled and reprogrammed on an entirely di!erent basis as a result of the COVID emergency. Its example provides a starting point for examining the strategies adopted by some of the participating museums to engage their communities during the lockdown and the early phases of recovery in 2021. International examples of cultural initiatives launched during the public health emergency are also analysed, to understand the di!erent strategies adopted and their longer-term implications.