Year In Review 2022

a year in review 2022

2022 marked a very special year for us as FPM turned 30. As we put together some celebratory film footage and compiled material for the exclusive printed supplement that was included with the summer issue of Treasures of Malta, we were able to look back with a sense of pride, achievement and gratitude.

Works on the new premises at St Paul’s Street, Valletta have been going on at full steam with the intention of opening in 2023. The building is undergoing a complete overhaul to accommodate both the Victor Pasmore Gallery as well as the FPM office space. The team have also been hard at work on our forthcoming exhibition, In Search of Line which is set to open in the newly refurbished space. A new website for the gallery has also been designed and will launch early next year.

We have kept up a strong social media presence both for FPM and Palazzo Falson and have relaunched the Victor Pasmore channels. We do our best to keep in touch with our followers and supporters through our weekly mailshots and monthly newsletters, whilst other articles relating to both FPM and Palazzo Falson are published monthly in the AirMalta magazine Il-Bizzilla.

This year we have a new publishing agreement with Kite Group Publishers. They will be responsible for all our publications. We are greatly looking forward to this collaboration, as aside from the quarterly art

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Introduction

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journal Treasures of Malta we also have some very collectable and well researched books in the pipeline this year.

The energetic team at Palazzo Falson have continued to organise tours, lectures, children’s workshops, collaborations and TV features, always striving for high standards and culminating in the Friends of the Museum overseas trip which took place in Palermo, Sicily this year.

Our podcast series Treasures from Malta hosted by Francesca Balzan has gone from strength to strength as a fourth season is now being released.

As always, our wholehearted thanks goes out to our generous Patrons, Benefactors and Assosiates, without whose support we would not be able to accomplish all that we do.

Joseph Grioli Chairman

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January - March

At FPM we started the year on a positive and excited note as we reminisced about the past and got ready to celebrate 30 years of the Foundation!

After the success of the first two seasons Francesca Balzan returned with her podcasts, Treasures from Malta, talking to more inspiring and entertaining guests. In this season we hear from Matty Cremona,Timmy Gambin, Suzanne Sharp, Daniel Cilia, Nico Conti, Joan Abela, Renzo Spiteri and Carmel Said.

The mini blog on Victor Pasmore and his contemporaries, Contrasts and Comparisons, which started at the end of last

year, continued.The monthly blog shows a work by Pasmore alongside another by a Maltese modern artist.

Palazzo Falson celebrated International Women’s Day with a specially curated tour which focussed on the

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Regency period.Various accessories were set up in the Drawing Room and participants were invited to try them on.

In collaboration with the Arts Society in Malta and Stella Maris College, Palazzo Falson hosted the college students to an art appreciation tour of the museum. The students then gave their own interpretations of Edward Lear’s landscape, Fomm ir-Rih.

The Palazzo also featured on The Local Traveller with Claire Agius who was shown around the museum by curator Caroline Tonna. In March the much-loved children’s workshops commenced again with the series Stejjer Griegi.

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April - June

Spring was a busy time for the publishing department. A new publication, Society Fashion in Malta – the Portrait Photography of Leandro Preziosi

(1830-1860) by Caroline Tonna was published. The launch was held in April at the Casino Maltese.

Easter also brings about the first publication of the quarterly magazine Treasures of Malta. In our strife to always include a variety of both authors and articles, we put out a call for papers, encouraging students and academics to submit their research for publication. The podcast series and

monthly blog on Victor Pasmore continued and we also started works on the design of the new website for the Victor Pasmore Gallery which is set to open in 2023.

GRAMPUS

Heritage

Vocational Training in collaboration with Palazzo

Falson organised an educational and highly enjoyable week for four British students that was themed Sustaining Heritage, Present meets Past. Also at Palazzo Falson, various school tours were organised and children’s workshops continued.

May was a special month

for Palazzo Falson as the museum turned 15! A Guided Highlight Tour was organised by the museum to mark International Museum Day where participants were treated to a show and tell of

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hidden treasures and met with museum hosts, interns and research volunteers.

Members of the Foundation for European Societies of Arm Collectors from all over Europe were invited to visit the Armoury at Palazzo Falson. The mission of this foundation is to collect, research and conserve historical arms. In June FPM released a short film celebrating 30 years of the foundation, highlighting the various exhibitions, publications and collaborations.

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A-B) A children's workshop inspired by the armoury at Palazzo Falson where they created their own armour and learnt about emblems.

C) The GRAMPUS students learning about silver filigree in the courtyard of Palazzo Falson

D) The lecture/performance by members of the European Graduate School at the Casino Maltese

E) Photography of the exhibits for the upcoming exhibition In Search of Line

F) Caroline Tonna, curator of Palazzo Falson accepting the Quality Assured Award from Dr Gavin Gulia, Chairman of the Malta Tourism Authority

G) Yun Chai, pianist and performer, alongside Simone Inguanez and Caroline Tonna at Palazzo Falson

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July - September

With the Summer issue of Treasures of Malta, an exclusive supplement was also published – Tracing the 30 Years of FPM’s Commitment to Maltese Cultural Heritage.

All FPM’s achievements over the years as well as some thoughts and anecdotes from the Foundation’s employees - past and present - are captured in this publication.

It would be impossible to celebrate this milestone without sparing a thought for Maurice de Giorgio who was appointed chairman

of the Foundation in 1992, and under whose guidance, enthusiasm, charisma and dedication FPM grew into what it is today.

Also, to mark this event, our General Editor Dr Giovanni Bonello was invited by TVM to share his thoughts on the past 30 years of the organisation.

Throughout the summer, photography of the exhibits for In Search of Line took place. This exhibition is due to open in 2023. The last of the Contrasts and Comparisons

series of the Victor Pasmore blog was published in July.

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October - December

In Autumn FPM reached a new publishing agreement with Kite Group Publishers who will be responsible for all our publications from now on.

After a time of absence, the Victor Pasmore Gallery returned to social media. The gallery has been closed since 2020 and will be reopening at a new location next year.

The Friends of Palazzo Falson cultural trip took place this year with an exclusive 5 day tour of Palermo, Sicily. They learnt about the history and culture of the region and visited castles, cathedrals and gardens, with a focus on historic houses.

The spouses of the European Presidents who were in Malta for the Arraiolos conference 2022, were treated to a private tour of Palazzo Falson accompanied by Miriam Vella, wife of the President of Malta.

In November, FPM had the honour to collaborate with the European Graduate School on a lecture/performance entitled The Musical Line that took place at the Casino Maltese.This was a soft launch for our upcoming exhibition In Search of Line.

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Our Senior Editor Giulia Privitelli won the award for Emerging Historian at the Malta Historical Society Awards – we are most proud of her! November also brought about a new podcast season of Treasures from Malta which has more delightful people chatting to Francesca Balzan.

At Palazzo Falson they celebrated International Students Day by inviting students to visit the museum free of charge. They also had the pleasure of hosting a seminar for the M.A students of the Art and Art History Department at the UOM, where they presented their research to date.

In December, a wonderful duo performance took place at Palazzo Falson featuring Yun Chai, pianist and performer at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music,

alongside Simone Inguanez, author and poet.

Palazzo Falson Historic House Museum was once again awarded the Quality Assured Malta certificate by the Malta Tourism Authority.

In December the Christmas issue of Treasures of Malta was published and available to purchase.

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For certain, our biggest challenge this year is the opening of the new Victor Pasmore Gallery at the former APS House in St Paul’s Street,Valletta. The gallery originally at the Polverista, Central Bank of Malta, shut its doors in 2020 and we have since been busy restoring the new premises that will be the permanent home of the Victor Pasmore Collection. This is set to open its doors in 2023 with the exhibition In Search of Line.

FPM’s next exhibition endeavour will see one

of history of art’s greatest subjects of exploration: the line, which has manifested itself in many ways, from drawing to weaving, writing, singing and storytelling. With this exhibition, FPM aims to explore these fascinations and break down ‘line’ to its core elements, its essence, and explore the artist’s drive to create and represent images, meanings and emotions through line. Through the works of the great artists as well as through public and private collections, this exhibition aims to freely explore and understand the

vast spectrum which is line. Before that however, we will be launching the brand-new gallery website.

We have a number of publications to look forward to this year among which is Theresa Vella’s Splendour and Devotion: The Art Collection of the Knights of St John due out in Spring. In her new and exciting book,Vella maps the history of the Order through the art they collected, providing the reader with a different approach to the subject as well as highlighting the history of art collecting in

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2023

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early modern Europe. Also, more of Giovanni Bonello’s well-loved Histories of Malta should be published towards the end of the year.

The interns who come from abroad for a placement at Palazzo Falson provide the museum with an invaluable service and offer a wealth of experience. They are involved in the day to day running of the museum but also work behind the scenes on the archives (currently digitizing and cataloguing Captain Gollcher’s letters) and research projects (delving into various areas of the Gollcher family depending on their area of specialisation). All this will continue throughout 2023.