The Cluj Cultural Centre aims to identify the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cultural organizations in Romania. Therefore, it conducted a quantitative research, based on an online questionnaire, which was addressed to all public institutions, NGOs and entities working in this field. 51 organizations responded between 26.03-16.04.2020 to this questionnaire, 27 of them being from Cluj.
Here is the data collected until mid-April:
- Most operators were forced to cancel or postpone events in the first month of the emergency period;
- 31% of the operators completely stopped their activity, 41% stopped some of the operations and 28% adapted their activity, moving to the online environment, rethinking the scheduled activities and carrying out research activities, writing projects, rescheduling, online meetings , optimization and updating of materials and working tools;
- The financial losses suffered by the responding organizations in the first month of the state of emergency were between 12,000 lei and 350,000 lei;
- Between March 15 and April 16, more than 335 events were canceled in Cluj due to the COVID 19 pandemic, events in which 22,500 people were expected;
- Compared to the same period of 2019, the revenues of cultural organizations decreased by an average of 70%;
- 60% of the organizations do not have financial reserves, and those who have financial resources say that they will be enough to cover basic expenses for the next 2-3 months;
- 19% of the organizations had to make immediate staff reductions, and 30% estimate that they will have to make staff reductions in the next 3-6 months;
- The psychological, emotional state of the people working in the organizations is greatly affected during this period;
- On a scale of 1 to 10 (1 – extremely poor, 10 – very good), cultural organizations estimate that their financial situation in 2019 was around 6.2 (average); after the outbreak, they estimate their situation around 4 (average);
