Last month ACM launched ‘Right to Culture’. I had the pleasure to be involved in the process for the focus groups and the interviews, just before and during the first lockdown in 2020.
It was an eyeopening experience for me. The sessions and the interviews proved how important this commitment of the arts council and the national policy is. Even for cultural institutions outside Malta this resource package offers interesting tools and insights.
You can read more here and access the English version of the document here
In the last days of the exhibition I would like to leave a short reflection as a curator on collaboration and on the influence of a room on the final result. When Stefan and I started to develop the idea we had that particular space in mind as well as a selection of the current showcased works of art and hoped they would work together and create an interesting atmosphere together. The storyline we had in our head was vague, but pointing in a certain direction: a showcase of high level Maltese art in a Flemish ‘palazzo’-like setting in a year where Valletta would be one of the Cultural Capitals of Europe. We were able to convince the director of the space as well as the artists of our idea. What followed was a co-creation process between artists and curators. The title of the exhibition, the final storyline and the adaptation of the works to that context all happend in collaboration.
Ann Laenen 