Do you culture? Do you care? Does it challenge? Does it change? What is the role of culture in 21st century Malta? What does the future hold for Maltese artists? What is the impact of culture on our society?
This January, the British Council and St James Cavalier in collaboration with the Malta Council for Culture and the Arts and the Ministry of Tourism and Culture invited the various stakeholders to form part of a think-tank called the Valletta Creative Forum (VCF). The VCFfocuses on issues challenging contemporary culture in Malta through a series of encounters and workshops which aim to provide concrete proposals and a road map for the future of culture in Malta.
It will seek to expose the value of the arts on a social and economic level and the need to develop the necessary infrastructure to professionalise the arts in Malta. The six month national forum will bring together artists, policy makers, institutions, politicians, business entrepreneurs and professionals from Malta and beyond to initiate a debate on current cultural issues. Through working groups, all the participants will be recommending strategies and initiatives to generate new ideas for Malta’s creative industries.
The final session of the first series of the Valletta Creative Forum will discuss Cultural Diplomacy: The forum will take place at St. James Cavalier Centre for Creativity, Valletta on Saturday 23rd June 2007 from 10am to 3:30pm.
This forum is a unique opportunity to explore further the potential role of the arts as a tool for Malta’s diplomatic affairs and discuss policies on how Maltese representations abroad may nurture and promote Malta’s creative expression. It will also assess how diversity is celebrated through the arts and how it can assist in breaking down negative perceptions of ‘the other’ through cultural cooperation and understanding. The forum will also be a good opportunity for all those involved in Maltese and Foreign cultural diplomacy to share best practices and recommend measures for the development of cultural diplomacy.
Amongst other speakers, the forum will be addressed by Dr. Kathinka Dittrich and Dr. Ali Fisher. Dr Kathinka Dittrich is Chairperson of the European Cultural Foundation and former director of Goethe institutes (Amsterdam, Moscow, Munich) and former City Councilor of Köln. Dr. Ali Fisher is Director of Counterpoint (British Council), a think-tank charged with developing thinking about Cultural Relations.
The forum participants will also contribute to the proceedings of one of the working groups:
1) Can the arts serve as a tool for intercultural dialogue, integration, and cooperation?
2) Expressing Malta’s identity abroad: the artist as a national symbol?
To register, kindly send an email to euproject@sjcav.org indicating your preference of working group by Thursday 21st June 2007. The forum will be held in English, is free of charge and includes lunch.
is Director of Counterpoint, the British Council’s think-tank on cultural relations, based in London. Prior to this appointment, Ali was a Lecturer in International Relations in the Department of Politics at the University of Exeter. His research interests include Public and Cultural Diplomacy during the Cold War and the influence of Civil Society and Cyberactivism on contemporary Cultural Relations.
Ali received his PhD from the University of Birmingham, where he wrote his thesis on US cultural operations during the early Cold War. This work focused on the projection of concepts of ‘America’ and Democracy through the promotion of American Studies in Europe, with particular emphasis on Britain and Germany. He also recently contributed to The US Government, Citizen Groups and the Cold War edited by Helen Laville and Hugh Wilford. Ali Fisher was an editor of 49th Parallel, an interdisciplinary e-journal publishing research in the field of American and Canadian Studies.
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