Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1065920
THIS WEEK maltatoday | SUNDAY • 23 DECEMBER 2018 4 Their hopes for 2019 Culled from a year's worth of interviews with TEODOR RELJIC, local artists and creative practitioners speak about where their respective scenes are heading, as we look to 2019 and beyond Teodor Reljic "Local bands are touring abroad more often" "It's becoming more common for local bands to go on tours abroad because social media makes it slight- ly more achievable... by sending a simple Facebook message to a venue, one can book a show. Asking for help from the right people is a plus, especially if we all pool our contacts together, the local music scene would become stronger and everyone can benefit from the experience of performing abroad. Caroline Spiteri - drummer, Fuzzhoneys "We need to remain open to different approaches" "In today's contemporary context, we should be very careful not to conceive contemporary art prac- tices as pertaining to a particular trend, model or ap- proach. The creative and artistic art sector should be open-ended and broad enough to include different approaches. Furthermore, there should be a constructive critical approach, without confining art reviews and analysis to simple descriptions and happy reports. It would be very fruitful to have an open critical discourse be- tween artists, art critics and the general public. Roderick Camilleri - artist and curator "Professionalism is still lacking" A good number of creatives from my generation are now studying abroad, and I think all this will enrich the theatre industry in Malta with more expertise and less amateurism. Yet, I still think there is a huge lack of professionals in it. By professionals I do not only mean those who do their art as a full-time profession but also those who work with discipline within it. The profession- als are those who have also studied their craft with discipline. The lack of this discipline in general is re- flected in the work presented to our audiences, in my opinion. We can now go onto discussing whether this is feasible financially for the performer, or if there is a big enough market for theatre in Malta for this to happen. Yet, the idealist in me believes that if we give more quality theatre to our local audiences they will come back again and again, thirsting for more. Ruth Borg - actress "Artists should be adequately compensated for their work" "It's an interesting time for the local theatre scene. Au- diences are exposed to more productions than ever be- fore. This is a double-edged sword. It means that there is more theatre being produced, however, it doesn't seem to me that audience numbers are increasing signifi- cantly. The size of the pie has remained the same, but there are more slices being cut out of it. New audiences need to be nurtured and new markets need to be found. I believe the former is being addressed somewhat, with productions being taken to schools and with the intro- duction of incentives such as the Culture Pass, among other things. The latter is still in its infancy. There exist a small number of performers, including myself, who are focused on taking their work to new markets over- seas, by tapping into available funds and opportunities. It will be interesting to see how or if things change when Valletta 2018 is over. I'd like to see a change in attitude towards actors. I'm talking less about theatre here and more about the broadcasting side of the industry. Malta now has a full-time, albeit small, professional perform- ing arts industry. To progress further, we need some- body to watch over performers' interests. I understand that budgets can be lower in Malta than most other countries, but wages and conditions are still abysmal and do not proportionately reflect these lower rates. I think this is happening because there is still too much of a blurred line between those that do this professionally and those that are weekend hobbyists. There's nothing wrong with either, but like a musician, dancer or singer, the person who has dedicated their life to training and perfecting their craft deserves to be paid fairly for their work." Chris Dingli - actor "Contemporary dance in Malta is at an interesting stage" The dance scene in Malta is quite small, and the contemporary one is young and still somewhat unac- knowledged by the general public, and as a result, the difficulties that Maltese artists encounter are those related to identity and autonomous expression. This having been said, in the last years we've seen it grow and develop within the community, bringing togeth- er people from every background. It is a field which is riveting development and increasingly demanding attention and support. Marie Kieser Nielsen and Francesca Zammit - dancers "Malta has missed out on a century of music" "There is certainly a lacuna when it comes to con- temporary music on the local art scene. I often feel