The week-long free children’s arts festival, Żigużajg, could help change the way future generations think. Sarah Spiteri shares notes with Veronica Stivala.

It is a known fact that listening to classical music at a young age has short-term beneficial effects on helping one think better.

Being exposed to the arts can help one with transferable skills such as active listening

Known as the Mozart Effect, these benefits of listening to music have been known since the early 1990s but recent research has shown just how sophisticated infants’ communication skills are from as early as when they are newborns.

According to academic research-er Suzanne Zeedyk, tapping into these skills has helped people with communicative impairments such as those which arise from autism, learning disabilities and dementia.

Referring to these studies, artistic director for the children’s festival Żigużajg, Sarah Spiteri, explains how important it is to expose children from as young as possible to the arts.

“Introducing children to music, art and theatre does not only mean that they will attend concerts as adults but their way of thinking will change,” she says.

Starting tomorrow, a week-long, free children’s arts festival featuring over 100 shows with over 20 companies from both Malta and abroad will bring Valletta alive.

Although the festival will run for a week, naturally this does not mean children’s exposure to the arts must begin and end here.

The festival boasts an extravagant variety of performers from the UK, The Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, Germany and Malta, some of whom have devised shows especially for Żigużajg.

Highlights of the festival include the visually spectacular Architects of Air, who build monumental inflatable structures designed to create a sense of wonder at the beauty of light and colour.

Visitors enter the magnificent structures and move through labyrinthine tunnels and cavernous domes, taking in a medium of saturated and subtle hues.

There will also be a storytelling experience by Marlene Mifsud Chircop who, along with folk singers, will be teaching children about the oral way of telling tales through għana. The children will be encouraged to come up with their own stories which will in turn be converted into folk songs.

A project close to Spiteri’s heart, for she is currently doing a Masters in Profound and Complex Learning Difficulties, is a multi-sensory interactive performance by the Bamboozle Theatre from the UK, entitled Jilly and the Jellyfish.

Aimed at children with profound and multiple learning disabilities, each member the audience (of six children at a time) meets Jilly, who appears from beneath the waves, gets a massage from amoeba puppets and finds floating creatures passing in front of their eyes.

The audience can even touch the set, interact with the puppets and meet the characters close up. Spiteri comments about the importance of audience participation.

“In this age of internet, we are becoming very passive. Being exposed to the arts can help one with transferable skills such as active listening.”

This is a gold-mine for teachers, she adds. By fostering active listening, the positive outcomes will be numerous.

Other artistic delights at the festival include a puppet workshop, a mysterious magician, a journey around the world with various musical instruments and the creation of an upside-down-inside-out world by dainty and delightful dancers.

“Exposing children to such a high level of excellence will raise their expectations and eventually the quality of their performance, as well as giving them new ideas and new sources of inspiration,” says Spiteri.

In addition to performances by professionals, the festival will also feature a number of shows by advanced students in drama, ballet, musical theatre and music. The aim behind this is for other students to learn by watching their peers.

The concept behind Żigużajg is not just “let’s have fun for a week” but to work towards a different approach to the arts. This isn’t going to be just Disney, clowns and cartoons, explains Spiteri. Indeed, because of the professional level of the shows, they will be enjoyed by adults too who never had the chance to experience this when they were young.

In this way whole families can enjoy the shows… discussing and learning together even after the event is over.

Spiteri hopes this will become an annual event. “We will be seeing a difference in 10 years’ time not just in audience numbers but in the way we think and approach life.

“Exposing children to the arts goes beyond them merely having an understanding of the arts.”

Żigużajg: Kids and Youth Arts Festival opens tomorrow and runs until next Sunday.

To book and for more information, visit www.ziguzajg.org.