Culture and Arts in Pandemic Times: COVID-19, Strategic Communication, and the Case With SALT Initiative

Abstract

As the COVID-19 outbreak took over the world population, artists and institutions who contributed to the production and dissemination of arts and cultures had to give a break to their professional activities. It was March 2020, when Turkish government decided to stop arts and culture related activities, in order to prevent the spreading of the disease. Actors of arts and culture scene quickly adopted themselves to the “stay at home” days, and continued their productions while in self-isolation. As a result of this unexpected incident, many domestic and international arts and culture institutions have opened their archives on digital media platforms. As the epidemic broke out in the beginning of March 2020 in Turkey, SALT quickly reconstructed and updated their online historical archives and art collections by making 1.840.000 documents accessible to individuals via the Internet. The current study aims to analyze communication strategy of SALT initiative during the COVID-19 outbreak.