Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1539398
6 gozotoday | FRIDAY • 5 SEPTEMBER 2025 CULTURE Inauguration of the Muzew Tekniku Vincenzo Bugeja THE Muzew Tekniku Vincenzo Bugeja - Istituto Tecnico Vin- cenzo Bugeja Workshops was official inaugurated on Friday, 5 September by the Minister for Social Policy and Children's Rights Michael Falzon, and blessed by Joseph Galea Curmi, Auxiliary Bishop. Earlier in the year the Malta Industrial Heritage Associa- tion (MIHA) had entered into a Management Agreement for the management of the above-men- tioned museum. This agreement was signed by Chairperson of the Vincenzo Bugeja Foundation Andrew Mamo, and President of MIHA Vincent Cassar. This agreement and the inau- guration ceremony represent a significant milestone for the three-year-old Malta Industrial Heritage Association, a Volun- tary Organisation whose aim is the preservation, restoration and rehabilitation of Malta's Indus- trial Heritage including its appre- ciation and study. In his address the President of MIHA said that "the Associa- tion's main objective is that of safeguarding what is left of the nation's industrial heritage and to develop an awareness in the local population, commercial and manufacturing establish- ments and government entities on the need to preserve, restore and rehabilitate machinery, buildings and other objects of industrial heritage importance - in-situ wherever possible". The Management Agree- ment is a major milestone for MIHA. It also puts onto MIHA's shoulders a great responsibility to take care of this 122-year-old gem of in- dustrial heritage, to preserve it and open it up for viewing by the public. "There is still a lot of work to be done including our first and principal objective remaining that of identifying and securing premises for the establishment of a National Interactive Muse- um for Industrial Heritage." In concluding his address, the President of MIHA said that "my message this evening is one – we have already lost a lot of our industrial heritage. Let us save what is left". At the same time, he recalled what the Agatha Bar- bara, then Minister of Culture, had said in 1979 from the same Vincenzo Bugeja Workshops when she appealed to firms and individuals having old machinery of any kind, which they no longer needed, to donate it to the muse- um, instead of throwing it away or letting it decay. The President of MIHA concluded by saying "today there is the Malta Indus- trial Heritage Association that is ready to take over such machin- ery to preserve it, restore it and rehabilitate it". Whilst congratulating MIHA and the Vincenzo Bugeja Foun- dation for this initiative minister Michael Falzon added that "this evening we should also be cel- ebrating Vincenzo Bugeja who had a vision and who had the courage to establish not only this Details of some of the machinery