[attach id=252897 size="medium"]Chairman designate Jason Micallef. Photo: Jason Borg[/attach]
Jason Micallef’s appointment as chairman of the Valletta 2018 Foundation was carried out in consultation with the Prime Minister, Parliamentary Secretary for Culture José Herrera said yesterday.
Dr Herrera defended the Government’s controversial decision to appoint the One TV chairman and former Labour general secretary to head the foundation, which will prepare Valletta for when it becomes European Capital of Culture in 2018.
He explained that Mr Micallef will have a managerial role and will not be the artistic director of the V-18 foundation.
“Our role will be mostly managerial... art isn’t something you can constrain,” Dr Herrera said in reply to questions.
He promised that management would be kept at “an arms’ length” from the artistic element of the foundation.
Dr Herrera said the post was temporarily on a part-time basis but eventually, as the workload increased, Mr Micallef would take up the post full-time and remuneration would be increased accordingly.
I will have a lot more opportunities to meet up with you journalists
He also stressed that the previous chairman, architect David Felice, would still be involved in the V-18 “in some capacity”, but stopped short of specifying what.
“I’ve spoken to David Felice, he is also a personal friend of mine, and he has indicated that he still wants to make his services available,” he said.
Mr Felice’s role in the foundation would be negotiated and determined in the coming days, Dr Herrera said, as he addressed the launch of one of V-18’s artistic programmes. Chairman designate Mr Micallef, present for the launch, declined to answer a question by Times of Malta about his cultural credentials and his lack of presence on the cultural circuit.
He replied it would be “extremely prudent” to instead focus on the press conference at hand.
“This is a very positive initiative and of course I will have a lot more opportunities to meet up with you journalists when I will start in earnest to work within the foundation.”
The launch of Story Works, a programme with Maltese writers aimed at promoting the craft of writing, took place on East Street Bridge in Valletta, a location very popular with foreign film directors.
V-18 artistic director Jean Pierre Magro, who will be coordinating the programme, said this will give Maltese writers the opportunity to work with senior lecturers from the University of Southern California, in the US.
“Malta suffers to export its cinematographic product to foreign markets and this programme is offering Maltese writers the chance to work with some of the best cinematographic writers of our time,” Mr Magro said.
These include international writers David Howard, Martin Daniels and Mary Kate O’Flanagan, who will be leading a series of workshops held every two years for the coming five years. These will be free and are open to the public.
Moreover, every year until 2018, 12 people will be chosen to take part in a training programme and the applications will be available online.
“The cinematographic budgets in Malta are limited but we need to raise awareness of the possibilities of co-productions with foreign houses,” Mr Magro said.
More information is available at facebook.com/Valletta2018