Children can have their work exhibited in a museum by taking part in a Heritage Malta competition

It is a great privilege to have an artwork exhibited in a museum and Heritage Malta is now offering this opportunity to children aged four to 16 who participate in an art competition titled Be the Artist.

Prehistoric Pop Art by Alessio Caruana, 14

Every fortnight, Heritage Malta is announcing a new theme for which children are invited to create their work of art and then upload an image of it on the agency’s Facebook event page. Artworks are divided according to four categories: 4 to 7 years, 8 to 10 years, 11 to 12 years and 13 to 16 years.

The best submissions of each theme are currently being shortlisted and displayed on Heritage Malta’s portal. Eventually, the final winners will have their work exhibited at MUŻA, Malta’s national community art museum, and on Heritage Malta’s portal.

To make this competition more fun and at the same time educational, the agency is providing engaging resources for each theme and which the participants can make use of.

The Construction of a Megalithic Temple, pencils on paper, by Kyle Saliba, 12

The first theme, which covered the period April 13 to 26, focused on prehistoric temples. For this competition, children were provided with drawings, information and games relating to the major local megalithic temples.

The feedback received was impressive both in quantity and quality, and in creativity. Artworks varied beautifully, with children using pencils, coloured pencils and pens, acrylics and watercolours for drawings and paintings.

The best submissions of each theme are currently being shortlisted and displayed

Collages were made with different materials, whereas models of different materials such as clay, stones, paper, cardboard and much more were presented. Twenty-five submissions were shortlisted for the first theme.

Afternoon at the Temple by Linnea Gustafsson, 9

The second theme, which covered April 27 to May 10, focused on Maltese traditional confections. For this competition, participants were provided with a series of four recipes to start off their ideas and asked to bake a traditional confection of their choice.

Once again, the response was precious, with participants opting for much more than four recipes.

Images of baked goodies and mouthwatering sweets included figolli (Maltese pastry stuffed with a marzipan-like filling), kwareżimal (chewy biscuits), imqaret (date cakes), biskuttini tar-raħal (village cookies), pudina tal-ħobż (bread pudding), qagħaq tal-għasel (honey rings), sfineġ ta’ San Ġużepp (dough balls), biskuttini tal-lewż (almond biscuits), għadam tal-mejtin (bone-shaped almond cookies) and ħobża tal-Malti (traditional Maltese bread). Nineteen submissions were shortlisted for the second theme.

Prehistoric Malta by Tòmas Camilleri, 6

The third theme, which covered May 11 to 24, focused on the knights’ armour. For this competition, participants were provided with interesting information about the knights’ weapons and armour. Patterns to create armour and weapons encouraged the children to release the knight in them. The shortlisted works for this theme will be announced soon.

The fourth theme, which kicked off yesterday and will end on June 7, is named ‘Pose for Art’.

Participants will be provided with a number of works from Heritage Malta’s national community art museum MUŻA and asked to recreate a corresponding scene.

The fifth and last theme will run from June 8 to 21 and will cover Roman mosaics. As usual, participants will be able to make use of the information and resources which will be made available and they will be asked to create a composition of their liking.

For more details about the Be the Artist competition, visit Heritage Malta’s portal www.heritagemalta.org or Facebook.

Hypogeum, acrylics on paper, by Pearl Scerri, 15

A Splash of Colour in Grey Times by Luisa Attard, 10

History by Night, by Timmy Ellul, 10