The head of Arts Council Malta warned this morning that Malta would soon have “a fraternity of artistic directors” and unless they worked together there would be chaos.

Speaking at a press conference on the Malta Arts Festival, Mr Marshall said V18 would have an artistic director soon and other entities such St James Cavalier already had an artistic director.

He told Culture Minister Owen Bonnici all these have different cultural visions but they need synergy to work together.

Dr Bonnici said this was why he had always spoken about the need for flexibility and autonomy between different entities.

 “Just like the different instruments in an orchestra, we need to work in harmony,” he said.

He compared the entities to EU states working independently under the umbrella of a bigger body - Arts Council Malta.

He hoped that the number of people attending cultural events increased.

The ninth edition of the festival, being held between July 14 and August 2, will be held at the Mediterranean Conference Centre, Pjazza Teatru Rjal and Fort St Elmo. It will include artists from Croatia, the UK, Spain, the Netherlands, Czech Republic, South Africa and Russia along with Maltese.

Ruben Zahra, one of the artistic director, described this year’s festival as “an exhibition of eclectic projects and interdisciplinary art events”.

Local, he said, was being intertwined with foreign helping Maltese artists grow.

The whole programme can be seen here.