Warnings and Recommendations to the Directorate General of Fine Arts

WARNINGS AND PROPOSALS TO THE GENERAL DIRECTORATE OF FINE ARTS

Dear culture workers and art lovers,

As the Culture Workers' Union, we wish to voice our serious concerns and present our proposed solutions regarding the 4B contracted-musician recruitment examination which the General Directorate of Fine Arts has announced will begin on the morning of Monday, 18 March 2024.

Our analysis of the application process and examination arrangements, together with information from our members, shows serious shortcomings and injustices.

We therefore ask you to take into account, and to raise, the following warnings and proposals:

Warnings:

1. Fair and equal conditions: the examination time and the jury's listening capacity fall far short of giving candidates a fair assessment. The time allotted to evaluate each candidate's performance is extremely limited, and this prevents candidates from being assessed equally. For instance, with 712 applications, the jury would have to hear 65 candidates a day.

2. Technical assessment: it is not possible to assess candidates' technical and interpretative abilities within one minute. This makes it difficult to conduct the examination in keeping with its purpose.

Proposals:

1. Wider examination arrangements: holding the examination not only in Ankara but in different cities would give candidates more opportunity and greater equality. Everyone would then be able to take part and the process could be run more fairly. For example, examinations could be held on different days in the six cities where each orchestra is based.

2. Trainee-artist recruitment: recruiting trainee artists within the framework of the legal provisions would offer candidates long-term career planning. After the traineeship, successful candidates would have the opportunity to serve as permanent staff artists.

3. Fair employment: employing candidates in 4B status may create problems in terms of long-term career planning and security. Arrangements offering the chance to become a permanent artist are therefore needed. In particular, since the current decree allowing transfer to permanent positions without examination after 3 years is a one-off, arrangements must be made so as not to condemn candidates' futures to uncertainty.

All these warnings and proposals are made to contribute to the development of art and culture, to create a fair employment environment and to protect the rights of young artists. We call on the authorities to take the necessary steps and to turn back from mistaken practices.

Respectfully,

Culture Workers' Union