Professionals in the art sector have made public this Tuesday afternoon that they denounce the public competition for the direction of the art because they consider that the rules “do not guarantee the minimum required conditions of transparency and free competition.” Signed by the Catalan Association of Art Criticism (ACCA), the Association of Professionals of Cultural Management of Catalonia (APGCC), the PAAC and with the support of the Macba Business Committee, they show their “opposition to the contest rules” just one day before the museum’s Board of Trustees approves the name of the new director and the same day that the interviews with the final candidates were held. The contest opened on March 9 after the announcement that it ended at the end of April.
After analyzing the bases of the competition with the Code of Good Practices for Management Competitions, a document agreed upon by the entire sector and with the support of eleven professional associations, and having spoken with the museum’s Business Committee, the signatories requested a meeting with the representative of the evaluation commission, Eduard Vicente, manager of Macba, with the aim of alerting him to the serious deficiencies detected in the call and to demand explanations for “some inadmissible points in a management competition of a museum with the international projection and positioning of Macba.” Likewise, they report that their demands were not met as they expected.
Among the shortcomings, they cite the lack of an international member as an independent jury in the evaluation commission, something they consider “essential.” Furthermore, they affirm that the designated members do not demonstrate proven experience in museum management, which calls into question whether they are “capable of assessing the areas of knowledge and management.” Furthermore, the three members are or have been members of the General Council of the , a fact that questions their independence. “This lack of independence is even more evidenced by the fact that the jury is defined as an assistant and has a voice but no vote,” they warn.
The complainants also point out that it is striking that a high level of English is not required for higher management, as is the case, and even more so when it is required for jobs with a medium technical profile within the same institution. In his opinion, the jury’s deliberation should be based on clear criteria, numerically quantifiable objectives and, for greater transparency, that they should be public and form part of the bases of the contest from the beginning.
As already happened in the Design Museum management competition, the signatories ask the ICUB and public entities for the “urgent need to develop a specific code that guarantees more rigorous, transparent and aligned selection processes with good practices for museums and art centers in Catalonia.
