Giuseppe Schembri Bonaci, a Valletta-born artist and academic, has been appointed artistic director of Strait Street, overseeing its cultural regeneration.
Speaking at The Splendid, a dilapidated former hotel in Strait Street, Valletta 2018 Foundation chairman Jason Micallef said the new artistic director would provide direction for the street’s aesthetics while curating a diverse programme of artistic events.
Dr Schembri Bonaci is a senior lecturer in the Department of Art History at the University of Malta and the Artistic Director of the Mdina Cathedral Contemporary Art Biennale.
He is also the founder of Teatru Strada Stretta, an influential theatre company of the 80s and 90s, and has worked as a theatre director in Moscow, Milan and Paris.
“Strait Street is to become a tradition and institution, a brand name of art and culture,” said Dr Schembri Bonaci. “This will be sustained by a programme of quality events and continuous activity.”
Describing the regeneration of the once-notorious entertainment area as a life-long dream, Dr Schembri Bonaci, whose family hails from Strait Street, said the challenge was to balance the growing entertainment industry in the area with a complete “spiritual, artistic and academic regeneration”.
“Malta is going through rapid socio-economic changes, and we must respond to these changes artistically. I want Strait Street to be part of that response,” he said.
The programme of events is planned to include exhibitions, theatre productions, symposia and jamming sessions.
Dr Schembri Bonaci also highlighted the need for the revival of an “alternative culture” of jazz music, cabaret, theatre and urban culture running alongside the more traditional cultural activities in Valletta.
“Strait Street’s history is linked with quality, with jazz bands, with competition, with vibrant artistic fora,” he said.
“I’m trying to get back to that particular historical stage, but offering various modes of artistic expression. As long as we get competition into it and rope in various people of different artistic ideologies, I think we can succeed in revamping the whole scene.”
The appointment of Dr Schembri Bonaci is part of a broad regeneration drive ahead of Valletta 2018.
The first phase of works in Strait Street, consisting of improving the street’s infrastructure and services, is expected to be completed by summer, with works on the entire project expected to wrap up in late 2016 or early 2017.
A related project, the Valletta Design Cluster, will see the creation of a community-based incubator for creativity and innovation at the Old Civil Abattoir (il-Biċċerija).