Heritage Malta
Guarding over 8,000 years of history, Heritage Malta is the national agency for museums, conservation practice and cultural heritage.
With a portfolio that encompasses archaeological sites, baroque auberges and palaces, catacombs, forts, natural landscapes and UNESCO-listed neolithic temples, Heritage Malta is the face of the Maltese Islands. More than simply advancing the stock of intellectual and cultural capital, our vocation is to offer a mirror to society through a heritage which is ‘Part of Us‘, because we are our history and this is our cultural identity.
Every generation, monument, artefact, language, specimen and celebration has a story to share. Heritage Malta ensures that these stories are preserved for posterity and are made accessible for everyone, everywhere, to experience and enjoy.
Arts Council Malta
Arts Council Malta is the national agency for development and investment in the cultural and creative sectors. Driven by the commitment to cultural rights, Arts Council Malta invests in the arts to strengthen Malta’s creative and cultural ecology.
MUŻA
MUŻA is the National Museum of Art, branded as the Malta National Community Art Museum. The word ‘MUŻA’ is a translation of the Maltese term for ‘inspiration’ and also stands as an acronym for MUŻ(ew Nazzjonali tal-)A(rti), –which means ‘National Museum of Art’. It also refers to the muses, the mythological figures from Classical Antiquity inspiring creativity and, in effect, the etymological source of the word ‘museum’.
MUŻA strives to show the history of the National Collection, and the values that have shaped it over time. The MUŻA project aims to rethink the collection as a source of inspiration for the Maltese community and beyond. The project will keep questioning the relevance of museums and how they remain dynamic and vibrant institutions in this day and age.
MUŻA seeks to adopt and purposely develop a participatory museum model for the arts, with particular reference to its national art museum remit. Community and nation are, by consequence, overlain and traditional museum audiences are rethought into participants and inhabitants.
MUŻA seeks to become a significant community asset promoting social cohesion, intercultural dialogue, creativity and inspiration. It promotes greater participation by the community through a story-based narrative of display and related objects, and utilises a broader range of access tools to experience heritage and culture.
For this purpose, MUŻA is understood as a hybrid of public spaces, galleries and retail facilities equally relevant within one interconnecting weave of services and facilities that define MUŻA as a National Community Art Museum.
