Name day: Simona, Apolonija

Di?na Zirni?aSanta Lauga / Latvijas Radio Today, 13:18 Art Authors: Tenis Bikovskis (LSM Latgales redakcija) At the end of last year, Diāna Zirniņa, manager of the Rēzekne 'GORS' arts centre for 12 years since the day it opened was dismissed from her job. "Loss of trust" was cited as the rather vague reason for the decision, the R?zekne municipality said at the time. But more than a month later, Zirni?a still has not received an official explanation for the reasons for her dismissal, she told the Latgale edition of the Latvian Public Media programme "Latgales stunda" (Latgale hour).

"I'll probably have to write an official application. I want to know what the official justification is for my suspension," she said.

Before becoming the head of the concert hall, Zirni?a was partly responsible for the image-making efforts of the R?zekne municipality - she worked in the city council's Public Relations Department, so is no stranger to social media. She points out that information about her suspension appeared even before a board meeting to discuss the matter had been held: "We already know that there are various pages on Facebook - both the city's official page and some other smaller pages, where the news about the change in the concert hall board appeared even before the end of the meeting of the board members."

Zirni?a said that she had felt political pressure during her work.

"I would be lying if I said that there had been no conversations in which someone expressed their opinion about the repertoire - some considered it sad, some considered it difficult, some considered it too Latvian, some considered it too Russian," she said.

As the future of GORS, which is an important cultural institution for the whole of the Latgale region, became a hot topic amid reports that its funding was insufficient, the mayor of R?zekne, Aleksandrs Bartaševi?s ("Together for Latvia" party) denied any attempts had been made to influence the artistic independence of the venue. Yet even before last year's local elections, he said on the LTV program "Choose the Future" that he was not satisfied with the repertoire offered by the concert hall.

Speaking about the future of the concert hall, Zirni?a now agrees that the state should be involved in its the management.

"The president of the country has clearly stated several reasons [why this is important]. One of the main ones is the issue of security," said Zirni?a, "security does not only mean weapons, security means everything that is in our heads. Do we feel like we belong to Latvia's European cultural space?"

Following an audit of the performance of GORS commissioned by the R?zekne City Council, the municipality began to consider issues regarding the reduction of local government funding provided to the concert hall and a change in its management.

Possible scenarios for the reorganization of the concert hall are being evaluated by a working group, which has examined the possibility of transferring the concert hall to the private sector, among other options.

Meanwhile, members of the public have begun collecting signatures against the transfer of the concert hall to private hands which more than 10,000 people have already signed on the platform "ManaBalss.lv".

Ilona Rupaine, a composer, teacher, musicologist, and head of the Artistic and Events Department of GORS since the opening of the concert hall in 2013, has been appointed as the new director of the concert hall.

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