New violin-making course at the Malta Society of Arts

Applications are now open for around 25 winter courses in the visual, applied and performing arts taking place at Palazzo de La Salle, Valletta

The Malta Society of Arts has just launched its schedule of courses starting in the first week of October. The long list of exciting visual, applied and performing arts classes has some interesting additions for this year’s winter semester, including a new Fine Arts Portraiture course and a Violin-Making course tutored by an Italian violin-maker – what’s liutaio known as a luthier or Italian.

Students attending the violinmaking course will be creating the head of their very own violin stringed with a theoretical base for building violins in the classical Italian tradition. The sessions, which will be held in English, will be practice-oriented “laboratory” sessions taking place at the MSA’s in seat at Palazzo de La Salle.

The art rooms of the Palazzo will then be hosting the Fine Arts Portraiture course consisting of several consecutive sessions with one model posing in the same pose to instill discipline in the participants. The course is aimed at lovers of fine art portraiture with some knowledge and experience in traditional techniques and it will surely be one of the popular visual art classes in the coming months.

Other winter courses, which fall under the visual arts umbrella, will include Fine Arts Nude Figure, Art for Juniors (varying ages), Preparation for Art O’Level, Art for Adults, Art for Mature Students, Clay Modelling, Art Workshops and Photography.

The applied arts section on the other hand will offer lessons in Crochet, Lace-making, Cottage Crafts, Crib Building, Cake Decorating, Dress Making, Tailoring, Embroidery, Gold Embroidery, Cross Stitch, Cut Work, Hardanger, Hansa, Gilding, Knitting, Monastery Work, Parchment, Patchwork, Soft Furnishings and Ganutell, among others. Finally, students in the performing arts courses can choose to learn the guitar (electric, acoustic and classical), piano, violin and voice.

Most of the courses consist of 12 sessions of around two to twoand-a-half hours per session, with the first lesson starting at the beginning of October and concluding towards the end of January. Bookings are now open. For more information visit artsmalta.org/courses or call the Malta Society of Arts on 2124 4339, 2124 4400 or send an email on info@artsmalta.org