Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/621909
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 3 JANUARY 2016 31 This Week Prepping for the 'prep year' What are the most significant challenges – as well as opportunities – that Maltese artists face in the coming year? TONI ATTARD, Director of Strategy at Arts Council Malta believes that 2016 will be crucial in determining the creative and experimental potential of local creatives, as we loom closer and closer to 2018 2016 is a 'prep year' for a number of cultural projects. Official results of cultural in- frastructure projects submitted for European funding for the period 2014 – 2020 will be an- nounced in 2016. This will kick- off substantial investments and resources in the successful pro- posals to ensure that they are delivered on time and accord- ing to the strict regulations of the fund. The biggest challenge for each project is to go beyond the restoration or construction of a building. New cultural in- frastructure projects also need to focus on building an active community that will eventu- ally utilise and engage with these spaces. Both MUZA and the Valletta design cluster have successfully demonstrated how this approach supports the project and its users. 2016 will also lead to the first year of the implementation of the Arts Council Malta strat- egy. This will require increased advocacy and communication with artists, cultural organisa- tions and the public. In 2016 a number of new initiatives will be implemented ranging from a revamped Malta Arts Fund to a competitive three-year fund- ing programme for festivals and cultural organisations. Improvements in fund evalu- ation processes and project pitching will also be introduced. As announced in Budget 2016, preparatory work for Malta's participation in the 2017 Ven- ice Biennale will be in full swing together with the launch of Te- atru Malta. In 2016, Arts Coun- cil Malta will also be hosting the 7th World Culture Summit with a strategic focus on cul- tural leadership. This will be a unique opportunity for Malta to take centre stage on cultural policy discourse within a global context. Another important process in 2016 will be the program- ming of the extensive cultural programme that will take place in Malta and other countries as part of the Maltese presidency of the Council of the European Union in 2017. These challenges and oppor- tunities need to be relevant to creative practitioners who may want to leverage their artistic practice. As a prep year for cul- ture, 2016 should be another opportunity for new work to be developed through increased experimentation, interdiscipli- nary collaboration and interna- tional networking. This means that for a number of creative practitioners, 2016 may be a good time to review and create new work because in a few months they're on the road until 2018. These developments call for creative practitioners and pub- lic cultural organisations to be more positive and proactive in building a collaborative, sup- portive and open creative envi- ronment. from 2016 and beyond "I think the local theatre scene is developing quite nicely. Gone are the days when we had to go through the censors to put on a play. Soon, we won't be threatened by obscenity and blasphemy laws either. I think the scene is becoming more professional. I would be happier if more companies took risks with their work but I guess everyone has his niche and as long as the quality is good, all theatre is welcome." "I am in awe of all that's been going on in the local literary scene in the past ten years or so. A lot of energy has been put in by writers, publishers, and non-gov- ernment entities to give new impetus to Maltese literature. "Much has already been accomplished but this doesn't mean that we can rest on our laurels. We need more people (both male and female) experiment- ing with novel-writing. We need more books for adolescents. We need more children's books in Maltese, especially pop-up books and touch and feel books for babies. We need more illustrators. We need to be more inventive and adventurous in book de- sign. We definitely need a writer's and translator's house that offers residencies for both local and foreign writers. "We need better equipped libraries. We need bookshops that offer more shelf space to Maltese literature, poetry included. We need libraries and bookshops that organize reading sessions, allow- ing readers to meet local writers. "But we also need more readers, curious and demanding ones for that matter, and there lies the rub. There is an urgent need for a massive national campaign to promote reading among young children and, even more importantly, to teach (not just encourage) parents how to read to their infants (babies and toddlers) and help them establish a daily reading routine. The younger the kids, the more fertile the ground!" "I keep thinking that the literary scene is heading towards interesting times. As for theatre, well, I worked for years in what was considered to be the alternative, experimental scene, which had contrasting ethos and aes- thetics to this mainstream theatre. While a couple of mainstream thea- tre companies are working at putting the foreign as close as possible (sadly not the contrary), the alternative scene, the theatre of the periphery is extremely silent, dormant if not alto- gether absent. "Even though certain circumstances have forced me to distance myself from the periphery I still long for it and still hold on to my theory that the mainstream will suffer if the periphery is poor or nonexistent. As for local television drama productions... well, I really dislike being very open about what I think of it: basically many of the stuff has horrible scripting, appalling production and editing and horrendous acting. There: I told you what I didn't really want to say." Nadia Mifsud – poet Immanuel Mifsud – author and playwright Adrian Buckle – theatre producer