The Effects of COVID-19 on Norwegian Artists : An explorative research of Norwegian artists ́ wellbeing and worklife during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

In this thesis the focus mainly lies on how Norwegian artists were reported during the COVID-19 pandemic, from the pandemic came to Norway until the end of this thesis, which is about halfway into 2021. The COVID-19 pandemic drastically changed many artists ́ work-and daily life. In times like these many of us have been given an opportunity to reflect. With the world being forced into more isolation and social distancing this thesis focus lies in attempting to investigate the more introspective effects that the COVID-19 pandemic has had for Norwegian artists. This study has based itself on mainly focusing on using two methods: literature research and semi-structured interviewing. For the interviews, there was four artists that was interviewed where the aim of the interviews was to get a better understanding of these artists daily and working life’s during the pandemic. Artists in the music industry have reported to struggle with things such as psychological distress, so through this research it was especially interesting to investigate how artists were doing, taking theCOVID-19 pandemic into account. Through the literature research and the interviewing, the results reported that artists were experiencing more uncertainty and vulnerability, as well as being reported being more prone to psychological distress, during the pandemic. With this, it seems like the COVID-19 has increased pressure in artists daily and working lives. This master thesis only provided a perspective to my area of research, so further research is relevant in order to better understand the effects that COVID-19 pandemic has had on artists.