The Malta Entertainment and Arts Association (MEIA) has challenged Culture Minister Malcolm Paul Agius Galea’s comments on public funding for the arts sector.

In a recent speech, Dr Agius Galea said that artists often approach him to request public financing for their projects and questioned why such funding is necessary if their productions are to be commercially successful.

However, MEIA argued that the Government doesn’t treat commercial success as a reason to withhold financial support in other sectors, such as the foreign films industry.

“It offers a cash rebate of up to 40 per cent to film productions, including major Hollywood productions,” it said. “Local artists should not be held to a different standard.”

Accusing Dr Agius Galea of “hostility” towards the arts sector, the MEIA said it has faced a lack of communication and respect from the Minister since he took office earlier this year.

It said it has also received a number of concerns from artists about other speeches he has given, in particular one in which he reportedly said that artists remind him of his time working at Mount Carmel Hospital.

“The Minister’s latest remarks make it clear that he does not understand the sector he is responsible for, or the people who work in it,” it said.

“Creativity is not a danger to be contained or a trauma to be endured. It is the work itself, built on years of training and professional practice, and it should not be made to conform to a Minister’s personal sense of right and wrong.”