Government and official
entities working in the field of culture, in the coming
months will be focussing their efforts on increasing
the accessibility and the popularisation of cultural
places and cultural activities.
Addressing participants in a seminar entitled ‘Access
to Culture for People with Disability’ organised
by Heritage Malta, Minister for Youth and the Arts,
the Hon. Jesmond Mugliett said that accessibility has
become the dogma of all the official entities falling
under the responsibility of the Ministry for Youth
and the Arts. He said that the aim is to enable people
to participate in cultural activities and access culture
in all its forms.
“I started stressing on this point very early
in this legislature and I believe that it has now become
part of the mission statement of the entities falling
under my responsibility. This will remain our main
point of thrust in the coming months,” he added.
Minister Mugliett said barriers to accessibility can
take on different forms such as physical, financial
or intellectual. He added that we are living in a time
when a sensibility towards accessibility is growing.
“The concept of accessibility has been taken
a step further and we are now talking of inclusivity
so much so that sport and even culture have been drawn
into the discussion.
“We are also living in a time when the prospects
of accessibility have never been so good thanks to
information technology. Virtual museums, web streaming – all
these make culture more accessible though such experiences
can never be the same as the real thing,” he
added.
The Minister for Youth and the Arts said that the
fact that the rules of accessibility are being implemented
at our sites is making a difference. “We are
working on one particular museum – the Roman
Domus – where the mentality employed today is
a break with the mentality employed on earlier refurbishment
projects. The sensitivity to make culture accessible
has become something that is stuck at the back of our
minds. One other example is the publishing of the legal
notice on the new tariffs for Heritage Malta’s
sites and museum. The fact that there are special rates
for disable persons is proof of the Government’s
growing sensitivity in this area,” the Minister
said.
“I believe that the greatest obstacle to cultural
accessibility today in Malta is neither physical, nor
intellectual, nor financial but is one of our making – our
social mentality. If you were to look at the statistics
about who goes to museums or attends theatre or musical
performances, you immediately realise that these are
made up of a very small proportion of our population.
“What does this teach us? That we have to work
on presenting museums and heritage sites as well as
cultural performances in a more popular form so that
they can really be enjoyed by persons of different
educational backgrounds, of different needs and of
different social backgrounds,” the Minister concluded.
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