When the Arts Council Malta published its audience survey last November, much was made about dwindling audience numbers. The talk was all about the effects of COVID but there were also green shoots about audiences slowly returning to the cultural scene. Indeed, a look at the 2022 financial budget gave cause for optimism.

Unfortunately, the experience on the ground reveals a totally different picture. Artists, particularly in the freelance performing arts world, are still struggling to make sense of ever-changing health guidelines while the government institutions responsible for the sector are beset by rank amateurism.

Over the years, the private sector has invested in training and best practices. We now have professionally trained performers and arts administrators, professionally run theatre, dance and music companies and schools and an increasingly well-trained workforce of technicians, stage managers, set and costume designers and makers.

Indeed, Malta’s cultural sector, particularly after joining the EU, has thrived thanks to its determined and strong private initiative. It is a grassroots approach derived from a genuine creative genius that forms part of the Maltese identity. How many towns or cities of 500,000 inhabitants can boast the same depth and breadth of cultural events? It is this professionalism and creativity which have allowed the sector to remain alive, despite the odds.

Not so when it comes to the public cultural organisations, the theatres, concert halls and museums supported by the government. For too long, PCOs have been the toy for those responsible for culture. The top positions on these institutions and their boards are often held not by qualified people but by those selected at a minister’s whim.

They tend to lack the necessary experience and seem keener to do the minister’s bidding than fight for the real needs of the culture sector. This at a time when the sector badly needs a strategy to help it out of the post-pandemic crisis.

This lack of skills at the top level has led to some bizarre decisions, such as going into direct competition with the private sector. Both the Manoel Theatre and the Mediterranean Conference Centre have announced they are to produce their own musicals.

This is a dangerous precedent. Unlike, say, the opera, which is too expensive for the private producer to put on, musicals are a reliable source of income for private companies. With the entry of these two PCOs, the field becomes totally skewed: neither of them will have to worry about making a loss. They can always rely on government funding.

If this concept is extended it will push out private initiatives and create a monopolistic environment. In effect, the PCOs will be using the government subsidy not to aid the private sector but to quash it.

The lack of a cohesive link between the organisations and the communities they serve has reached a crisis point

Is it any wonder then that the cultural sector is up in arms? There is total disengagement between the sector and the PCOs meant to serve it. As the survey notes, “Internationally, a primary factor that has assisted arts and cultural organisations during the pandemic were the strong links such organisations have built with their communities”. The lack of a cohesive link between the organisations and the communities they serve has reached a crisis point.

The creative sector needs the PCOs to get their act together. It needs partners, not inward-looking amateur organisations interested in serving their own needs. A proper public and transparent makeover is needed, with appointments of trained professionals and assistance from culture representatives, to create boards and organisations that enjoy the confidence of the sector.

For too long has culture been strangled by incompetent dead wood. It’s time to turn a new leaf.