The arts centre and Maltese strategy

I suppose that when Minister Jesmond Mugliett says that the government is inclined to build a new Parliament on the opera house site we are to infer that the decision has practically been taken. Still, it is worth dwelling on the strategic opportunity cost of not building an arts and culture centre.

I have yet to be convinced that the arts centre option was viewed through a properly economic lens. By "economic" I do not mean the sort of public-private partnership proposed by the Labour government in 1998 and reiterated by Evarist Bartolo recently. According to this plan, the centre would have generated revenue through links with a commercial complex operating within the centre; Mr Mugliett has retorted that this venture would damage the commerce of existing Valletta shops. The economic rationale I have in mind has nothing to do with this disagreement.

I suggest that an arts centre could generate significant tangible and intangible economic benefits if it were given a strategic role to play in the development of the Maltese and Euro-Mediterranean economy. In a moment I will say more about the three essential commodities that the arts centre would trade in: Events for cultural tourism, cultural translation for the burgeoning Euro-Mediterranean economy and trust in international cultural relations. But first, a quick detour.

In suggesting that the arts centre could generate significant revenues of its own I am relying on the observation that that is precisely what an institution like the British Council does. It generates roughly two-thirds of its income. The final third comes from the British Exchequer; and it is worth pointing out that the British Council has managed to have its budget increased by a notoriously tight-fisted "Iron Chancellor". Gordon Brown can see the intangible economic benefits of an institution that helps foster national creativity; he recognises that the new economy has a functional need for a society that is, at once, diverse and "inclusive" since free multi-cultural communication based on reciprocal trust enables a society to be truly open to the talents.

If we use this kind of reasoning when contemplating the arts centre we would see the important role that it would have to play in the arts as an economic industry and in the development of cultural tourism. The latter will not develop without high quality cultural products.

The impression is sometimes given that what cultural tourism entails is changing the slogan from "Malta! Beaches!" to "Malta! Temples!" But cultural tourists do not attend literary festivals for their reading rooms nor for public readings from Jackie Collins; yet, it is the analogue of that which we currently offer.

An arts centre could be an important coordinator and producer of events that would grow our cultural tourist industry. And attracting people from outside Malta to our cultural events would reduce the amount of subsidies such events require if they were staged only for the Maltese market.

As with the British case, a more vibrant arts and culture sector in Malta, if it fosters a wider culture of creativity and innovation, should have intangible benefits for the Maltese economy.

The Mediterranean economy, too, is developing in a way that calls for cultural services and inputs. For example, as English-language teaching spreads in the regions there is a greater need for textbooks devised for a different culture (say, in the kinds of sentences and illustrations used) to be culturally translated in appropriate ways. Such products could fall within the remit of a Maltese arts and culture centre.

Finally, there is the commodity of trust. According to Martin Rose, a director within the British Council, trust is the basic commodity traded by cultural institutions in international relations. This is because cultural relations are "crucially involved in extending the area, geographical and moral, in which shared assumptions about reciprocity and the predictability of other people's behaviour hold sway. It is the area where trust, rather than force, provide coherence and consent".

He goes on: "Cultural relations therefore not only has a future, but a future which, if grasped, will make of it one of the most powerful tools in any nation's toolbox". I do not think I need to labour the point why, in the current political climate in the Mediterranean, an arts centre that also projected itself as a regional centre for cultural relations and events would have a future.

A successful arts and culture centre would generate a final benefit for both our economy and our international relations. It would help establish a Maltese expertise in cultural relations - in the same way that the presence here of the Mediterranean Academy for Diplomatic Studies has, to a degree. And such a reputation for expertise would enable further clustering, in Malta, of such institutions.

Naturally, just because a new Parliament is to be built on the old opera site does not mean an arts and cultural centre has been ruled out. But it does seem to have been ruled out in the short and medium term. If so, this is a strategic mistake that is economic as well as cultural.

ranierfsadni@europe.com