Cultural Policy

Thanks to The Times of Malta for featuring this brief reflection on the next European Capital of Culture in Gozo in 2031. The text is also below. Readers may recall the passage from Boris Pasternak’s Doctor Zhivago, or the scene from David Lean’s film adaptation, where a dying man is diagnosed with another illness not acknowledged… Continue reading The Expensive Cementification of Culture (ECOC)

The author asks local questions about the interdependencies of culture and the arts to the social fabric of a societies health care, social welfare, housing, the environment and education. Taking the longer view of the political and social fall-out of Covid, how can the intricacies of cultural eco-systems be supported outside of the basic economics… Continue reading Pandemic challenges to the cultural sector with a focus on Europe, the Mediterranean and Malta

During 2020/2021 a new online radio programme was launched by Campus FM, the University of Malta radio station, featuring Dr Karsten Xuereb interview a variety of cultural practitioners from all walks of life. This is a brief feature. Programmes can be listened to here.

How is postcolonial behaviour perpetuated through cultural means? An assessment of cultural governance in Malta reinforced through a brief comparison with Tunisia illustrates how former European colonial practice influences current policy addressing culture in one European Union (EU) and one non-EU Mediterranean territory. This paper argues that the deference the EU has shown towards the… Continue reading European postcolonialism and cultural policy in the Mediterranean: an assessment of Malta and a comparison with Tunisia

Just published (Open Access): Conducting Participatory Arts Projects: A Practical Toolkit (University of Lapland). Co-edited by Prof Raphael Vella and Margerita Pule, with contributions by Paul Wilson, Melanie Sarantou, Milosh Raykov, Margerita Pule, Raphael Vella, Tang Tang, Isabelle Gatt, Karsten Xuereb and Aidan Celeste. This toolkit is intended to help artists and arts researchers to… Continue reading Conducting Participatory Arts Projects: A Practical Toolkit

This guest blogpost for Arts Council Malta addresses the importance of research in arts projects in challenging times like the current pandemic. Photo by Kixott.

This link takes you to a manual of best practices and a collection of studies on tourism, economics and marketing in Malta, Portugal and Spain developed during the Erasmus+ multiannual project 3Economy+ with the University of Malta, the University of Granada and the Polytechnic Institute in Portalegre.

This piece was written together with Emmanuele Curti and Anda Georgiana Marinescu for ENCATC in order to address challenges faced by cultural heritage managers in post-COVID-19 scenarios (starts on page 25). Image by ENCATC.