After almost two years in the works, the National Culture Policy was launched with a two-hour tour of the Archaeology Museum, an artists’ atelier and St James Cavalier around Valletta.
The locations – a government-owned museum run by Heritage Malta, a private home and the St James Centre for Creativity – were chosen to represent the various sectors covered by the policy, which encompasses anything that can be thought of as cultural or creative –the arts, architecture, heritage and digital gaming – which has in turn led to an additional 11 per cent in government spend on the sector.
One of the main drives of the policy is to strengthen the status of arts and culture by beefing up the framework regulating it and launching incentives for work within the cultural sphere.
A main issue is education and excellence in the arts, which are intrinsically linked because the policy proposes that arts courses are offered at all levels by existing institutions including the University, the Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology and the government drama, art and music schools.
Another part of the policy calls for the culture-led regeneration of buildings, where old structures that were not used could be given a new lease of life by being used for cultural purposes, an example of which is the Auberge de Provence, which hosts the Museum of Archaeology.
The policy acknowledges that governments should stay at arm’s length from direct cultural decisions and leave them in the hands of appointed boards, which it would finance.
The policy has six sections: policy framework, cultural governance, creative education, creative excellence, inclusivity and international and cultural cooperation.
Speaking at the launch of the policy, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said Malta had a lot of cultural heritage, the greatest of which was the country’s talent and creativity.
He quoted Renzo Piano who had told him that “Malta is in the midst of a cosmic soup” and said that the island should “rediscover this vocation”.
The Parliamentary Secretary for Tourism and Culture, Mario de Marco said the document was the fruit of a lot of consultation, noting that during the recession, the cultural sector was the only one that had kept growing. He said the past five years had seen economic activity in the sector increasing 30 per cent, going up to a value of €47.1 million.
Speaking on the intrinsic value culture had for people’s lives, Dr de Marco said that “every cent we spend in culture is not a subsidy, it’s an investment in something valuable”.
The document also advocates measures such as tax incentives to lure artists into turning professional and have everything above board and calls for resources to be made available to students who wished to advance their studies in culture and the arts abroad.
The next process is the strategy stage, where the policy is actually put into practice.