Iggy Fenech chats to ICA Festival’s outreach manager Matthew Mamo to discover what MCAST’s Institute for the Creative Arts has in store for visitors at this year’s edition
As most students and lecturers begin to wind down in anticipation of the summer holidays, those at MCAST’s Mosta branch – formally known as the Institute for the Creative Arts (ICA) – go into overdrive. The occasion? A new edition of the popular ICA Festival which showcases the students’ work.
The preparations for such an event would have begun months earlier, with one of the first exercises being the complete rebranding of their sub-brand by the outgoing BA (Hons) in Graphic Design class.
“With the ‘sub-brand’ becoming the ICA Festival theme for the year, the concept and design will reflect the students’ vision for the festival, as everything will come to revolve around it,” explains graphic design lecturer Matthew Mamo, who has been an integral part of the team, along with artistic director Darren Duncan, since the festival’s inception in 2017.
2019’s sub-brand is entitled ‘Distinct’ and is the brain child of student Sarah Schembri Warr. The idea behind it was a reference to the individual creative disciplines, techniques, approaches and personalities of MCAST’s students, all of which will be showcased in the brand’s imagery and overall tone.
“We’ve been pretty bold with some of our choices this year,” Mamo continues. “Sarah and the rest of the team have done a fantastic job and we are incredibly proud.”
The event is a networking platform between students and stakeholders in the creative industry
This year’s ICA Festival is not sticking to the usual formula. While the event will continue to showcase students’ work in its various disciplines, 2019 will see the festival being expanded from one week to a whole month, and taking place at Spazju Kreattiv in Valletta, rather than at the Mosta campus.
The exhibition is also set to be one of the most varied yet, as there will be several new courses exhibiting for the first time. Alongside works by the photography, graphic design, creative media, performing arts, production, interactive media, fine art and spatial and product design students, which have exhibited in pervious editions, this year’s visitors will also see works by the cultural heritage skills, journalism, fashion and retail students.
“Adding to this, MCAST’s career guidance staff are also going to have a presence at the festival following the launch of MCAST’s new prospectus, which was a collaboration between our graphic design and photography students and MCAST’s office of the registrar. This means that prospective students seeking advice on courses offered at ICA will also be able to see the sort of work they may be producing in the near future, should they enrol in one of our courses.”
Workshops and smaller in-festival events, which can be attended by visitors, as well as current and prospective students, will also be aplenty, with film screenings, student awards and networking sessions all being on the programme.
“This year’s highlights include an artist talk by the celebrated Eden Lazaness, who has previously exhibited her work at the Saatchi Gallery in London, and the very first local performance of Charise Castro Smith’s The Hunchback of Seville by our own performing arts students, presented by arrangement with Josef Weinberger Limited.”
With so much taking place over the course of the month-long festival, which will be on between July 4 and August 4, visitors are sure to find something that tickles their fancy. Yet MCAST’s ICA Festival is also meant to serve a higher purpose.
“MCAST has often been surrounded by certain stigma, and being part of an exhibition showcasing industry-standard creative work is a point of pride for the college’s staff, students, and their parents alike,” Mamo explains.
Indeed, the event is also used as a networking platform between students and stakeholders in the creative industry and beyond. This could, as it has done in the past, expose them to future employers and investors.
Having such a festival backed by MCAST also gives many of these students the opportunity to exhibit at a grand event within a prestigious space for the first time. “Furthermore, the students are directly involved in several aspects of the event’s organisation including the aforementioned branding exercise, marketing, curatorial work, documentation, fundraising and logistical aspects. This significantly lowers the learning curve for students who are planning to participate in future collective or solo exhibitions during their career.”
What has made MCAST’s ICA Festival such a well-attended event is that it is multifaceted. It is an upbeat event for visitors who get to see a myriad of creations and it’s a priceless event for students who could get scouted by industry leaders. It’s also an exhibition of what MCAST has to offer to those looking to enrol there. That, if nothing else, makes the students’ and lecturers’ work incredibly commendable.
MCAST’s 2019 ICA Festival runs from July 4 to August 4. On at Spazju Kreattiv in Valletta, the opening hours are 9am-5pm on Mondays, 9am-9pm between Tuesday and Friday, and 10am-9pm on Saturdays and Sundays. For more information, visit www.icafestival.com