Malta
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Lockdown Festival Malta (Nationwide, Malta)
The Lockdown Festival Malta was the first online initiative in Malta after the pandemic hit. The collaborative approach behind the creation of this event and the early stages of the Covid times in which it happened, makes it an interesting case within the Maltese context. Background No formal organisation or institutions was behind the organisation of this online festival. The organisers were three creatives Zoe Camillieri, Dancer and performing artist Kiet Bonnici, Visual Artist Vegard Flatøy, writer, musician and small-festivals organizer with the assistance of a small event planning company, BEWYLD, spearheaded by Niels Plotard and Shawn James. The event was self sustained and developed using three main tools: Personal…
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MUŻA: Masterpieces in Virtual Reality (Valletta, Malta)
An exhibition of 13 works from the late 15th to the mid-18th centuries was held both at the premises of the MUŻA, the Maltese National Museum of Fine Arts, and on their website through a Virtual Reality tour free of charge. The Digitisation Unit of Heritage Malta realised this production completely in-house in order to enhance accessibility to the exhibition during Covid times and in the effort to make baroque art meet the interest of the younger generations. Background MUŻA is the Maltese National-Community Art Museum, previously known as National Museum of Fine Arts (Mużew Nazzjonali tal-Arti, in Maltese), before changing its premises from Admiralty House to the Auberge d’Italie…
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The Dr Peter J Shield Collection: an invite down memory lane (Valletta, Malta)
One year after acquiring a photography collection from Dr Shield, Heritage Malta engaged with its audience, during the first lockdown, by regularly sharing some of these pictures and involving the general public, inviting them to share via email any information they might have about them. Most pictures were from the late 1950’s and showing all sorts of local subjects. Leveraging nostalgia in such a delicate period, while raising awareness about the recent past and making the audience feel part, feeling considered within the historical research process is an approach worth to be observed and further considered in its implications. Background Dr Peter J. Shield is a retired archaeologist.award-winning photographer and…
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Batman Gżirjan: co-creation in marginalised communities in times of COVID (Gzira, Malta)
Orchestra Resounds: a symphonic digital transformation (Valletta, Malta)
Underwater Malta – Virtual Museum: an innovative and state-of-the-art public access strategy for underwater heritage (Nationwide, Malta)
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Orchestra Resounds: a symphonic digital transformation (Valletta, Malta)
The Malta Philharmonic Orchestra has put in place a whole range of online events in order to cope with the closures of all venues due to the global pandemic. This effort was also supported by the bulking up of their Events and Marketing Team. The pandemic acted as a catalyst for their digitalisation process, bringing remarkable results in enhancing exponentially their audience involvement and engagement on digital platforms. Background The Malta Philharmonic Orchestra was founded in April 1968, under the name of Manoel Theatre Orchestra, regrouping the musicians from the former Commander-in-Chief orchestra of the British Mediterranean Fleet. In September 1997 it stopped being the theater’s resident orchestra, becoming independent…
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Batman Gżirjan: co-creation in marginalised communities in times of COVID (Gzira, Malta)
Batman Gżirjan was a co-created and community-focused artistic and research project, carried out by the artist Kristina Borg. The setting of the process was the maritime town of Gzira, in Malta. The main aim of the project was to raise awareness within the community of their relation with the heritage surrounding them (and their urban environment in general), through creative means, tackling their memories as well as the current perspective of two groups of local participants. The research workshops evolved in a final co-created performance. The pandemic posed many challenges to the research and performative side of the project. Background The project is curated and directed by a local artist…
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No. 49 – Fit for a Queen (Pietà, Malta)
Heritage Malta, in cooperation with and sponsored by a real estate agency, launched a virtual 3d tour of the Villa Guardamangia, which was the Summer residence of Queen Elizabeth II from 1949 to 1951. The virtual experience doesn’t reproduce the museum experience, but gives access to a recent acquisition from the agency and acts as a blueprint of the current degraded state of the property, as it enters a long project of restoration. Exclusives tours have been organised for members of the organization (subscribers), hence this virtual tour also offered a marketing leverage to get more people to subscribe, showing that exclusive perks, such as this, can be offered. Background…
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From TV Show to Contemporary Art Gallery: Through the People’s Lens (Valletta, Malta)
Fondazzjoni Kreattività is an institution born with the task of managing the premises of the St James Cavalier fort, in Valletta (Malta), after this was allocated as a space for the Malta’s National Centre for Creativity. Therefore, the link between the activities carried out from the organisation and its own premises is really strong. When the global pandemic hit, these boundaries had to be broken and overcome, due to the forced closure. The exhibition Through the People’s Lens: A Quarantine Diary is an example of how Spazju Kreattiv (the name of the programme managed and curated by Fondazzjoni Kreattività) reacted to this new reality and how the institution reacted to…
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Forma Mentis: A Windmill of Art and Community (Birkirkara, Malta)
Following more than one year of pandemic, through different forms of restrictions to private and public art spaces, plans of cultural centers still need to adapt. Rather than focussing on virtually re-creating the exhibition’s experience, the Gabriel Caruana Foundation, with the Forma Mentis initiative, tackles the role of Art Therapy in relieving what’s been named “pandemic fatigue” or any other mental issues arising in connection to the pandemic. Initially designed for persons at higher risk of marginalisation and exclusion, the initiative broadened its scope to the whole community. Background The Mill – Art, Culture and Crafts Centre is located in Birkirkara, in Malta, at one of the busiest crossroads of…
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Underwater Malta – Virtual Museum: an innovative and state-of-the-art public access strategy for underwater heritage (Nationwide, Malta)
Given Malta’s strategic location at the center of the Mediterranean, the seafloor surrounding the island holds hidden heritage from almost every period of history, including a 2700-year-old Phoenecian shipwreck, ships, planes, and submarines. Thanks to cross-disciplinary collaboration and advances in technology, in June 2020 a virtual museum was launched (first of its kind in the Mediterranean) making this hidden heritage accessible. Using 3D modeling, virtual reality, and other media, the website aims to provide access to and share Malta’s unique underwater cultural heritage with all members of the public, to create a digital record to help preserve and protect Malta’s submerged cultural heritage, and to promote and stimulate responsible diving…
