Malta is represented at the Museum of Musical Instruments, which has just opened its doors to the public in Phoenix, Arizona.
Forming part of the European section, Malta is present in the form of a number of locally-crafted instruments representative of the island's musical culture. The Malta stand includes a bagpipe (żaqq), a tambourine (tanbur), a friction drum (rabbaba/żafżafa), guitars and whistles as well as photos, videos and recordings of these instruments.
The new museum celebrates the rich diversity of the world's music and musical instruments. It is built over a vast area that includes not only an exhibition area but also an auditorium, a conservation laboratory open for viewing, a recording studio, galleries where visitors can see and hear instruments being played on video and also a restaurant and café.
Founded, and largely funded, by Robert J. Ulrich, the former chairman and chief executive of the Target Corporation, the Phoenix Museum, spread over two floors, includes about 12,000 instruments from all over the globe. The first floor features the Orientation Gallery, introducing visitors to the rich diversity of international instruments; the hands-on Experience Gallery, offering the opportunity for visitors to touch and play instruments; the Artist Gallery, featuring musical instruments and special items linked to world-renowned musicians and innovators; the Mechanical Music Gallery; and the Target Gallery for Special Exhibitions.
The first floor also houses a museum shop, a coffee shop and café, a space for group and educational programming and a state-of-the-art working conservation laboratory.
The second floor is devoted to the museum's extensive core collections, arranged in geo-galleries that focus on five global regions: Africa and the Middle East, Asia and Oceania, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the US and Canada.
The museum's mission is to welcome "the young and the old, the uninitiated and the knowledgeable, to explore and experience the rich diversity of the world's music and musical instruments."
www.themim.org