The recent resignation of Pia Zammit from the Manoel Theatre Board a week ago, seems to have caused, remarkably, some ripples in the usually calm waters of the performing arts.

This paper chose it, also rather surprisingly, as a front page story.

As a result I can reveal through inside information (spoiler alert: Pia Zammit is my long-suffering partner) that Zammit’s phone had its work cut out for it - pinging and panging as it received texts, e-mails and Facebook messages from all over. Ah, the wonder of social networks!

Pia Zammit's resignation caused a stir within art and culture circles.Pia Zammit's resignation caused a stir within art and culture circles.

There was also a ‘healthy’ amount of discussion on the comments board of this site. Well perhaps ‘healthy‘ is not the right word. Once more, some commentators decided to show their true genius by making reference to grapes which are past their sell-by date. But that is a discussion for another column.

This time round I would like to focus on the reason for Zammit's resignation. This was prompted by the sudden ‘letting go’ of the previous CEO to be replaced by another person without due consultation of the Manoel Theatre Management Committee (that’s the full title of the Manoel Theatre Board).

In effect, the board was asked to rubber stamp an order from the ministry

The news was given to board members on the very day the previous CEO was asked to clear his desk and get out, pronto, no ifs no buts.

The orders came from the ironically named Ministry for Justice and Culture.

In effect, the board was asked to rubber stamp an order from the ministry.

This is a very dangerous precedent.

If we forget for the moment the fact that this board is not just a board of directors but also a management board, the more fundamental question is - are the people taking this decision in a position to do so?

Frankly, the answer is no.

The Minister for Culture, like all previous ministers, is a ship in the night (over the last 12 years we have had six ministers or parliamentary secretaries), and so has limited personal knowledge of the sector.

The permanent secretary at the ministry, Paulanne Mamo, is new to the job, and has, to put it bluntly, very little sensitivity to the requirements of the sector, being more interested in things financial and bureaucratic.

And then there’s the Arts Council, the natural paladin of the sector which has remained profoundly silent.

But then again this is hardly surprising as the same council were warned about this a year ago, in parliament.

In a special session organised by the Arts Council held in September last year, as a representative of the Association of Performing Arts (APAP), I warned about the curse of what I called ‘amateur governance’ - that is, the appointment of people to cultural boards as grace and favour postings. You can read all about it here.

I also remember that that little intervention went down a treat, in particular with chairmen Albert Marshall and Jason Micallef, and recently appointed not-AD Mario Philip Azzopardi.

But perhaps the most silent of all, and therefore even more worrying, is the silence of the Manoel Theatre Management Committee, which, it seems, is happy to be the ministry's rubber-stamp.

There is though, another, perhaps even more worrying, aspect to this story, and it was highlighted by the University website thirdeyemalta.com. It is the culture of fear.

In the article ‘It’s a theatrical scandal’, the reporter spoke to a number of performing arts students who felt ‘let down’ by this appointment.

But the sting in the tale of this article came in one particular paragraph.

A performing arts student interviewed said: “Artists should be less scared to speak up, because we see a lot of these things happening, but if we do speak up about stuff we do not like, then we become scared that we won’t get another job, or we feel that we will be blacklisted”.

Needless to say, the hapless student did not want to be identified.

And with that we see another type of culture, the Culture of Resignation.

 

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