How sad do you have to be to believe this rubbish? The minute they heard Il-Guy and Jose were in charge, all artists should have known they’d been roundly insulted.
Times of Malta reports this evening:
Government remains committed to set up National Arts Gallery
The Government is still committed to set up a National Arts Gallery as promised in the electoral manifesto.
This would serve as a national showcase to the many works of Maltese artists who were, till now, barely appreciated by the public, Tourism Minister Karmenu Vella and Parliamentary Secretary Jose Herrera said.
Their reaction came after artists yesterday expressed shock at the news that the Government was ditching plans to move the National Museum of Fine Arts out of its present inadequate location, against the advice of Tate experts.
Before taking the decision of where this project should be, the Government should consider a number of other sites which could be ideal to make artistic cultural heritage more accessible.
In this process, the Government was committed to listen rather than talk and study all possibilities so that once an agreement was reached, the project would belong to artists.
The Government was also giving culture priority increasing the vote dedicated to culture by €1.6 million.
This was apart from many other new initiatives announced by the Government for next year in many cultural sectors, they said.
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Reply to H.P. Baxxter Click here to cancel reply
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Please complete and circulate.
What can one expect when the minister is a yokel and most cultural administrators are simply party girls and boys who know nothing about the arts? This is not new, but under Labour things get much worse.
When you see (I’ll mention a few):
1) Jason Micallef (a total nobody and total ignoramus) chairing the V18 committee
2) Sigmund Mifsud (a semi-professional musician by international standards) being appointed chairman of the National Orchestra (as poor as it may be) and conductor of a Gozo theatre
3) a certain Manuel Spagnol (a quasi-illiterate and semi-professional musician from Birgu) who resigned from the National Orchestra to take on a head-teacher’s job at the Johann Strauss School of Music’s Marsa branch
4) Albert Marshall (a nobody who spent a couple of years doing some work for a communitarian radio in Australia) chairman of the Malta Council for Culture and Art.
….what else is there to say?
According to this government’s meritocracy standards these individuals are of a superior calibre than Tate experts.
Let’s console ourselves with some fine arts.
http://s106148.gridserver.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/ChillTonic300.jpg
http://i.ebayimg.com/t/2-1-4-2011-GROVES-CHILL-TONIC-PIN-LIMITED-EDITION-PINBACK-BUTTON-PIG-D222-/00/s/NjgxWDcwMQ==/$(KGrHqRHJCIE-p,rMjeNBPrU!5WkJ!~~60_3.JPG
And here’s Mr Earl Grey himself http://www.aaawt.com/html/bee_ads/aug_12/item/images/Trade%20Sign,%20Groves%20Tastless%20Chill%20Tonic_661-23.jpg
What about this chef d’oeuvre by Malta’s illustrious theatre director, Noddy Marshall?:
(folks, have a sick bag ready before you view it)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrakoklLxVU
With Maltese film production, you always get that uncomfortable feeling of being a voyeur watching the director getting off on that frisson of almost crossing the Xandir’s line in the sandpit of censorship, but not quite.
Maltese artistic expression boxes itself in with its own rules. And no amount of progressive and liberal voters has changed anything. It makes you wish we had a Tinto Bras or a Sebastian Horsley to shake things up.
“This would serve as a national showcase to the many works of Maltese artists who were, till now, barely appreciated by the public”
“once an agreement was reached, the project would belong to artists.”
Government pandering to its critics, only it’s got hold of the wrong end of the stick because a) self-styled artists aren’t the only critics of government’s arts policy, or lack of it, b) there isn’t a hope in hell of all artists agreeing on anything to do with art.
Jose and culture. Nudge nudge, wink wink. Say no more.
I wonder, does the new parliament building, whenever it’s ready, have anything to do with government’s decision to remain committed to moving the art gallery?