Art, architecture, culture criticism need more space in journalism

In education debates, opinions waver between whether ‘critical thinking’ should be taught as a stand-alone subject, or as an integrated element within all learning.

Some universities, like the University of Edinburgh or University of Leeds, position it as an overarching skills resource − a permanent guide, with clear instructions, to turn to at the most crucial points of earning a degree. The instructions: identify a subject, exercise judgement, evaluate all arguments, synthesise conclusions, present. 

All stages of critical thinking are, at points, compromised by Malta’s unique social composition and behaviours. The density and speed of the islands make it difficult just to identify a subject and hold it in suspended scrutiny before new material arises.

The middle section of critical thinking is often forgone completely; in a place where people are socialised to act quickly and cut corners, the stamina and responsibility for evaluation and synthesis is rarely prioritised.

The final stage – presenting − is in biggest deficit. Because the way we consume media today is significantly clipped (media channels − both locally and internationally − have taken to presenting almost all their articles as swipeable images on social media), the space needed to build an argument through evidence and analysis has contracted.

Partner that with the need to compete for attention in a media landscape more crowded than ever in human history, and the instruction to stop and ensure each pillar of critical thinking has been visited, feels byzantine.

Art, architecture and culture present clear-cut opportunities for critical thinking. Each offer an unblemished subject − an artwork, building or urban system, event or series of acts − which becomes an anchor to critical analysis. Writing about an installation, sculpture or building, when done well, can mean refracting and forcing open cracks into society itself.

To pick a prominent local example: a critique on the barriers around Renzo Piano’s parliament building is not just commentary on the editing of an architectural idea, but on the fragility of democracy.

Were the critical thinking of every person strengthened by dedicated training, the rise of a culture of widespread permissibility might be obstructed

Andrew Borg Wirth and Michael Zerafa write about adjacent themes in their excellent essay ‘Barra (Get Out!)’, published by UCL Press. Their text is a strong example of how architecture and urban writing can become an analysis on people, power and society.

Similarly, the older debate on the coverings of the prehistoric temples is not just about the architectural merit of the protective structures, but a seed for deeper thinking on the nation’s relationship with heritage.

Art, architecture and culture have a degree of elasticity or abstraction that permit a more critical look at behaviours and belief systems. They have the potential to reach the corners of moral debates through oblique, sometimes hidden angles.

This is the basis of the ‘Modes of Art Writing’ workshop that was set up in 2021 within the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Malta. Its aim is to give art students the tools to translate what they learn in lessons of art theory and academia into real-world content.

The workshop strips back the nature of art writing, explaining why it is important to assess art subject and concepts in the first place, and then providing the building blocks for how to do so.

Now in its fourth year, the workshop has joined up with Times of Malta in a collaboration that sees students writing coverage for one of the islands’ biggest art events: the Malta Art Biennale 2026. The collaboration gives legitimacy to the need for critical thinking and expression to become, firstly, more embedded in pedagogical practices, and secondly, more integrated in mainstream media.

Alongside art professionals, the architecture student body should also be trained to write and talk about design decisions − the skill of articulating design concepts should be embedded in architecture degrees. Many believe that Malta is in protracted urban crisis, with the state of the built environment becoming an engulfing national concern at rapid speed, faster than it takes to develop the skills needed to properly interrogate it. There needs to be investment in a national culture of expression and fluency around why things are designed and made.

Tools of expression are important not just to the cohesion of singular debates − such as those around art, architecture and culture − but as training ground for civic deliberation, exchange and even disruption. Were the critical thinking of every person strengthened by dedicated training, the rise of a culture of widespread permissibility might be obstructed.

But real tools for criticality will only work if space is dedicated to its expression − the two must collide. Journalism is needed to understand how wrong and right decisions are made. Art, architecture and culture writing searches through the unlikely crevices of human intention to find out why.

Ann Dingli leads the Modes of Art Writing workshop at the University of Malta.