The Academy of Fine Arts, which represents art, architecture, and design, claims that free art differs from architecture and design, and that the areas have different working methods and purposes that are often difficult to combine.
"The proposed supreme authority would become an imposed overarching bureaucracy without benefits for either architecture, design, or free art", the Academy writes in a press release, and further calls the investigation "an unfair and biased commissioned work whose implementation would lead to an unfortunate dismantling of important cultural institutions".
Representatives from Arkdes and Bildkonst Sverige have also expressed criticism of the proposal.
Thomas Pålsson, Acting Director-General of the Geological Survey of Sweden, SGU, has been tasked with proposing how the merger can be implemented. Minister of Culture Parisa Liljestrand has emphasized that state administration must be cost-effectively organized.
Corrected: In an earlier version, Thomas Pålsson's title was incorrectly stated.
