Malta Society of Arts announces new schedule of art courses

Fifty-four courses in visual, applied and performing arts to start in January at Palazzo de La Salle while adhering to COVID-19 health measures

Malta’s oldest arts institution, the Malta Society of Arts, has just launched its new schedule of courses starting at the beginning of January, which will include 54 different courses in the visual, applied and performing arts. All courses will take place at the MSA’s seat, Palazzo de La Salle in Valletta, and will adhere to COVID-19 health and safety measures.

New prospective students are particularly looking forward to the new classes in January as the term which started at the beginning of October only accommodated students whose courses were put on hold in March due to the developing pandemic. These ongoing courses are presently catching up on the lessons missed and are taking place under strict COVID-19 health and safety measures such as the use of face coverings and hand sanitiser, as well as the implementation of social distancing. These measures, which have proven effective until now, will continue to apply to all the courses starting in the new year.

Another change for the 2021 courses will be their length. Instead of the usual 12 lessons between January and May, the new courses will be offering 17 lessons, taking place once a week.

“This was decided in order to recover part of the lessons that would have taken place between October and December, since these lessons could not welcome any new students,” explains MSA president Arch. Adrian Mamo. "At MSA, we are doing our best to keep offering high-quality training in the arts, even in these arduous times.”

The new schedule presents an array of exciting courses, including 20 subjects in the Applied Arts such as Sewing, Tailoring, Knitting, Crochet, Lace-making, Cottage Crafts, Filigree, Dressmaking, Embroidery, Gold Embroidery, Cross Stitch, Cut Work, Hardanger, Hansa, Monastery, Parchment, Patchwork, Soft Furnishings and Ganutell, among others.

The eight Visual Arts subjects will be Human (Nude) Figure, Art for Juniors (varying ages), Preparation for Art ‘ O’ Level, Art for Leisure, Art for Mature Students, Clay Modelling, Workshops in Art and Workshops in Portraiture. In the Performing Arts section, the five courses on offer will consist of Guitar (electric, acoustic and classical), Pianoforte, Violin, Theory of Music and Voice Studies.

“Even though the pandemic has wreaked havoc in the arts, we are definitely not giving up. The MSA will continue to support the arts and arts education as it has done in the past 170 years,” adds MSA manager Joe Scerri.

For a full schedule of the courses on offer visit www.artsmalta.org/courses. If you would like more information, you can call the Malta Society of Arts on 2124 4339, 2124 4400 or email info@artsmalta.org