I read with interest the piece by Martin Scicluna (‘City standards, excellence’, January 13), given my position as executive director of the organisation set up by the government, in 2011, to prepare for Valletta 2018: European Capital of Culture.

My role at the time was that of project coordinator, which al-lowed me to work very closely with David Felice and the inspired group of people who drafted the application submitted to the selection panel appointed by the European Commission and implemented the first phase of pilot projects immediately after the nomination was secured in 2012.

One cannot fail to notice the great sense of continuity the Valletta 2018 preparations have enjoyed: the majority of officers and cultural operators involved at the time still work closely with or contribute to the cultural programme and its management, as in the case of the Valletta International Visual Arts festival (VIVA), Modern Music Days and the Mcast cooperation framework with our sister European Capital of Culture in the Netherlands, Leeuwarden, our strong research programme in collaboration with the University of Malta and the development of cultural infrastructure projects like MUŻA, Strait Street, the Valletta Design Cluster and Is-Suq.

This is not to say that all was, or is, to the level of my satisfaction because there is always room for improvement and this must be so.

If anything, the significant respect shown towards the bid book, used as the key document for the application, and the individuals and organisations that submitted ideas following a series of workshops and meetings as part of the Imagine 18 process needed and still needs an innovative and creative approach. This is necessary to stimulate ideas and ensure that current cultural practices and actions are taken note of in the last 24-month stretch towards 2018.

For a flagship project like the Capital of Culture to maintain relevance, willingness to change, creative thinking and innovation need to be prioritised

Hence, there are two key points in Scicluna’s article with which I respectfully disagree. The first is the sense that the few, though significant changes that the Valletta 2018 Foundation and its partners have undergone in past years have been detrimental to preparations. The arts, like other areas of life, may gain from change, which is not to be simply feared and mistrusted but, if possible, embraced with strategic consciousness.

The pitting of Felice against Jason Micallef, who has championed Valletta 2018 with determination and dedication and who, incidentally, was never head of Super One news as claimed by Scicluna, is unfortunate: it repeats a trend peddled by other commentators who seem to find justification in their criticism of Valletta 2018 by conveniently drawing a line between both individuals, without paying enough consideration to the range of tensions and the balances playing out between the sense of continuity and novelty addressed above.

The second point with which I disagree is the following: Scicluna seems to believe that the European Capital of Culture initiative, begun in 1985 and itself having shifted focus from paying tribute to established cities of culture like Athens and Lisbon to seeking to support smaller or second-tier cities promising urban renewal like Glasgow, Lille, Mons and Matera, is about ‘raising awareness of the common history binding Europe’.

To the contrary, the title today encourages cities to seek difference and rather than seek unity in the past, to explore what can bind us, in spite of and even thanks to the challenges of intercultural exchange, in the present and the future.

For an EU flagship project like the European Capital of Culture to maintain its relevance to Europe and its citizens, as well as all those who wish to become its citizens, willingness to change, creative thinking and a drive for innovation through diversity need to be prioritised. That is what Valletta 2018 is aiming for in two years’ time.

Hopefully, perspectives which tend to favour divisiveness and a false sense of nostalgia can shift to others which are more engaging with current European realities.

Karsten Xuereb is executive director of the Valletta 2018 Foundation.