Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1300177
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 18 OCTOBER 2020 4 ART Maria Galea ARTISTS, art professionals, exhibition spaces and galleries in Malta are some of the most severely impacted in the COVID-19 crisis. While our arts sector is known for its growing talent, its ecol- ogy is fragile at the best of time and the current situation uncovered further its fragmentation. The sector is highly de- pendent on the level of public funding whilst philanthropic and private support is minimal. The newly established and growing as- sociation, Malta Entertainment Industry and Arts Association (MEIA), represents hundreds of artists, performers, art pro- fessionals and creative industries. The visual arts sub-committee formed by Maria Galea, Elyse Tonna, Lilly Agius, Austin Camilleri, Norbert Attard, Sandro Debono and Margerita Pulè dive into the challenges and risks the community is facing, what is needed for it to survive and above all, recover. The Visual Arts committee calls for an immediate recovery plan that proactive- ly and not reactively seeks to address the urgency of the situation. 2021 will prob- ably be even more challenging than this year since some artists in the visual arts may have continued working on projects commissioned last year. However, this year there was no commissioning due to the uncertainty, and this will surely have severe repercussions on the survival and sustainability of the sector next year. Many artists and arts professionals sup- plement their income through projects which take a considerable amount of time to plan and research. Many have been left stranded with projects without knowing when or if they should go ahead or not. The artistic community has been work- ing very hard for years to reach new audi- ences and increase the general relevance and perception of the visual arts sec- tor amongst the public. We continue to stress on the importance that arts should be given within our community since it strengthens the social capital of socie- ty, fosters creativity, well-being, critical thinking, encourages integration and pro- motes diversity and equality. In the past months we have seen numer- ous artists adapting to address the chal- lenges of the pandemic through online experiences, forms of engagement which will continue as another route of access to exhibitions, art education, disseminat- ing collections and associated program- ming. However, innovation and digital- isation of the sector is not for everyone and takes a considerable amount of time, expertise and financial aid to put in place. Margerita Pulè, arts manager and cura- tor, stressed on the fact that "an active, healthy and relevant arts sector is vital to Visual artists call for immediate