Towards a National Portrait Gallery

The National Portrait Gallery of Malta Foundation wishes to address and clarify some points raised by Patrick Dalli in his letter National Portrait Gallery Or Turkish Bazaar? (February 13). First of all the foundation is in agreement with the remarks made in Parliament by George Vella (PL) about the need for a national portrait gallery. This is why the foundation was established in April of 2006. It is a private initiative and a not-for-profit organisation.

A general call for expressions of interest was published in The Times of Saturday, August 23, 2008. The foundation was officially launched September 13, 2008, during which it honoured two persons from the field of sport. An exhibition of contemporary portraits and photographs by young artists was also part of the official launch activities. These featured several subjects including abstracts.

The foundation also participated in the European Youth Week held between November 2 and 9, 2008. The exhibition set-up foundation showed portraits of Maltese prime ministers. Volunteers were present to explain the background of these people and of such defunct institutions as the Unione Politica Maltese, the Constitutional Party and the Malta Workers Party as well as about the origins of still existing ones as the Malta Labour Party and the Nationalist Party. Great interest was also shown in the early prime ministers, namely Sir Joseph Howard, Dr Francesco Buhagiar, Sir Ugo P. Mifsud and Sir Gerald Strickland, about whom little is unfortunately known by the public in general. The stand was visited by hundreds of people who showed considerable interest in both the paintings and the subjects.

Last year the foundation found a person willing to donate a building to be used as a National Portrait Gallery. Planning permission for the conversion of the building into a National Portrait Gallery is being looked into and restoration and adaptation costs investigated. In the meantime the National Portrait Gallery Foundation has commissioned a further 30 paintings of prominent Maltese people from the fields of sport, art, culture, science and literature.

Mr Dalli is correct in stating that the website is still in its very early stages. The foundation is working on it, it is not ready, which is why it has not been promoted so far. The creation of a National Portrait Gallery involves several stages, not least two years of research into the background and imagery of prominent Maltese people (said research is still ongoing). We are working very hard to achieve the goal of a Natioanl Portrait Gallery and invite all artists, art historians, historians and other individuals interested in the project to contact us on info@npgmalta.com