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maltatoday, SUNDAY, 18 JUNE 2017 40 This Week REGISTRATION is now open for the Valletta 2018 Curatorial School, a one-week intensive lecture programme featuring international guest speakers from various institu- tions. The Curatorial School is in- tended for practitioners and students in a variety of related fields such as the fine arts, art education, arts administra- tion, curation and history of art. This year's edition is tak- ing place at the University of Malta – Valletta Campus from August 28 to September 1. Those interested in attend- ing may register by June 30 by visiting valletta2018.org/reg- istration/ This year's theme for the Curatorial School is 'Re- searching Curatorial Prac- tices'. By bringing together international and local per- spectives, the programme focuses on the research that curators of contemporary art engage in and on the role the production of knowledge plays in contemporary exhibi- tions. It explores the relations between curating, knowledge, site-specificity and the public domain in international and local contexts. The Curatorial School's pro- gramme will explore a range of topics that are highly rel- evant to practitioners and students today. These include curatorial research methods, the facilitation of encounters between knowledge systems, and the curatorial as an at- tempt to narrow the gap be- tween concept, exhibition and political action, amongst other related topics. The programme includes daily interactive workshops, culminating in an exhibition of ideas at the close of the week. Participants are offered the opportunity to respond to tasks put forward by guest curators and receive extensive feedback on aspects of curat- ing, researching, producing and presenting new ideas. Workshop themes include, 'Curatorial Start Kit for Re- search the Art and Democ- racy Question', 'Modes of Cu- rating/Curating as Research', 'Curating the Place and the Social', 'Art as Production of Public Domain', and 'Show- time: Exhibition Temporali- ties and Curating as a Mode of Political Enquiry and Critical Practice'. The Curatorial School is a Valletta 2018 project, in col- laboration with the University of Malta, as part of the Cul- tural Programme. For more information on the Curatorial School programme, visit www.valletta2018.org/ curatorial-school-2017/ PHOTOGRAPHY BY INIGO TAYLOR Wherever in some foreign field an olive grows, that corner is forever Mediterranean. Okay I apologise for mangling Brooke's famous lines but what I'm trying to say here is this: the Olive Tree is so typical of the Mediterraean region that wherever it grows – be it South Africa, California or the slopes of Foresta 2000 – the climate there must surely be like ours, i.e. mild winters, hot summers, not too much rain, with little or no frost or snow. And humans, whose civilisation too dawned in these parts, soon found many uses for the tree and its fruit – too many to list here. I'm treating this species today not because Olives (M. Żebbuġ) are fruiting or flowering at this particular time; I'm doing it in fond memory of the 36 young trees that some knuckle-dragger chopped down last week at Foresta 2000. I wonder what he got out of it, maybe he lost his fidget spinner and needed some tension release. Now there's a use for the Olive I'm sure the Minoans didn't think of. Visit Friends of the Earth's website for more information about our work, as well as for information about how to join us. You can also support us by sending us a donation - www.foemalta.org/donate Text and photo Victor Falzon 10 actions for a biodiverse Europe – Clamp down on illegal activities 562. OLIVE GREEN IDEA OF THE WEEK 465 GIFT WRAPPING- Wrap birthday gifts with old newspaper. If you have time, you can even cut thin strips to make a bow to top it all off. Too often the strong EU safeguards given to protected sites and species are flouted. Consistently, damaging activities and unlawful developments are needlessly threatening Europe's protected nature. This partly explains why a high proportion of protected sites are in an 'unfavourable' condition. National governments need to be better held to account for allowing damage to protected sites, habitats and species. Examples of damaging and unlawful developments to Natura 2000 sites include Lough Neagh in Northern Ireland, a lough which is approximately the size of Malta. Authorities remain inactive as the largest unlawful quarry in Europe dredges 1.7 million tons of sand from the bed of protected Lough Neagh each year. The dredging has taken place with no planning permission, no Environmental Impact Assessment or Habitat Assessment. The activity is likely to have contributed to pollution and disturbance to wildlife. Over the past 30 years, local bird populations have declined by more than 75%. The Commission must get tougher on stopping illegal activities in protected sites and penalising governments and authorities that fail properly to implement and enforce EU nature laws. Valletta 2018 Curatorial School opens doors to participants Registration will remain open until June 30 National Book Council preps Summer Book Festival in Gozo THE National Book Council is currently prepar- ing the Summer Book Festival – Gozo, a two-day event packed with cultural activities as well as a book fair. It will take place in Gozo on July 14 and 15 at the Sir M. A. Refalo Sixth Form in Victoria. The activities in the cultural programme of the festival will be based on the themes of youth lit- erature and poetry. July 14 is dedicated to literature for youth. Ac- tivities for this day include a panel discussion on the topic of Youth and Literature, which will touch upon various themes, among which youth literacy, and the problems of addressing youth is- sues without being patronising. There will also be events that focus on particular authors who have distinguished themselves in literature aimed at or concerned with youth and youth issues. Among the guests, both for the panel discussion and the author events, there will be Leanne Ellul, Antoi- nette Borg, Matthew Schembri, Roberta Bajada and other winners of the Literary Contest 'Novels for Youth', which is co-organized by the National Book Council and Aġenzija Żgħażagħ. Summer school students from Malta and Gozo will be in- vited to attend the Festival with their teachers and parents, as part of their summer school pro- gramme. Poetry will be the focus of the activities on July 15. The main event, in honour of the late Gozitan poet Gorg Pisani, will be set up by the National Book Council and will feature readings of excerpts of the poet's work. A number of award-winning local poets will also make an appearance during the various activities in the cultural programme for Saturday. Among these Prof. Michael Zammit and Maria Grech Ganado. The publishers and associations participating in the event are: Merlin, Glen Calleja and EDE books, Faraxa, MCA (Malta Classics Association), Hori- zons, SKS, Midsea.