Malta Design Week

When it come to culture and art in general, one of the biggest drawbacks of living on this rock is the lack of local organisations that can put and organise large scale events of an international level. Yes, we do have the occasional concert and the Malta Arts Festival but we still lack behind to mainland Europe.  It could be the lack of funds and resources, it could be the lack of creativity or god knows what but there is still much more that can be done to promote contemporary art in Malta.

One step in the right direction, is the Malta Design Week, a 7-day event that will take place in the first week of October. The event is spread across a number of venues, and the list of activities range from exhibitions, talks, workshops to launches. It aims to to bring together local and foreign designers, architects, artists, artisans, journalists, critics, academics and entrepreneurs. The list of events is impressive (have a look HERE) but more so are the aims of the event, quoting from their site

1. Act as a vital contribution in developing a healthy relationship between local manufacturing businesses and designers, putting them in closer contact with the realities of the international market.

2. Initiate a vessel of communication between art organisations and tourism-related entities promoting cultural tourism, with images of a creative Malta at its roots.

3. Develop a healthy Euro-Med exchange of ideas at Universities, schools and formative entities with other countries in the Mediterranean region, in order to determine and develop study methods and teaching resources about the role of design in contemporary culture.

What the team behind MDM has managed to bring together shows that these kind of events can be done locally and there is room for them. I truly hope that this event turns out to be a huge success; to the MDM team, GOODLUCK!

For more info please visit http://www.maltadesignweek.com/