Valletta Museums in the Community

Abstract

Our capital city, Valletta, is the venue of some of Malta’s top museums and heritage sites of cultural significance. These sites of memory are one the country’s prime assets at the service of the tourism sector. Indeed, these key tourist attractions, are well-known and also publicised by the Malta Tourism Authority worldwide. I have come to realise that in spite of these efforts to publicise most of these are, as yet, paradoxically unknown to Valletta’s residents. Recent local community initiatives, jointly undertaken with Valletta Local Council, brought Valletta residents to visit museums for the first time ever. The recent initiative, Naqsam l-MUŻA, jointly undertaken with Valletta 2018 foundation, also brought the MUŻA project, the new national-community art museum and one of Valletta 2018 flagship projects for Malta’s European Capital of Culture Title, and the collection of the National Museum of Fine Arts in touch with the community. Ten Valletta residents, purposely chosen to represent the community’s varied districts and identities, were invited to choose artworks which they also spoke about and described, also highlighting the reasons behind their choice which was later displayed in the streets in visual form accompanied by the thoughts of each participant. Other projects have sought to engage with Valletta’s communities in varied ways but these are by and large sporadic and uneven.