Delicata has announced the laureates of the winery’s Bettija’rt | wine.art.living barrel art exhibition and contest, organised in association with Is-Suq tal-Belt | Valletta Food Market.

The winery’s Bettija’rt art initiative aims to bring the local arts, Malta’s best wines and their enjoyment into everyone’s daily life. Ten local artists were chosen to transform a decommissioned wine barrel into an artwork.

It is part of the winery’s give-back campaign as Delicata shares 112 years of winemaking with the Maltese community.

On behalf of the supercentenarian Delicata winery, which was established in 1907, director Mario Delicata presented the four artist-finalists with honours, cash and other prizes, and a boxed double magnum of Delicata’s flagship Gran Cavalier Syrah wine to each participant.

The 10 artworks will be showcased again later this year at the MCC

The jury of professional art connoisseurs Anna Grima, Mariella Pisani Bencini and Kevin Casha, and myself awarded the 2019 Bettija’rt grand prize to David Xuereb for his installation entitled The Creation and the runner-up award to Donald Camilleri for his barrel painting An Improbable Toast.

The winner of the Bettija’rt community vote award, decided by online public voting, went to Francis Galea for his piece Romantic Journey of Art and Wine 1907 – 2019 with 23 per cent of the unique online votes.

A special mention was credited to Zack Ritchie for his artwork The Vessel of Joy, while artist-finalists Claire Attard Vella, Joseph Barbara, Carmel Bonello, Priscilla Gatt, Sara Pace and Caroline Said Lawrence received the Bettija’rt certificate of merit.

The inaugural Bettija’rt exhibition was staged for over four weeks at the iconic Valletta Food Market, represented at the prize giving ceremony by Antoine Portelli, COO of Arkadia Marketing Ltd part of the Mizzi Organisation.

The 10 artworks will be showcased again later this year at the Mediterranean Conference Centre upon invitation by Rosette Micallef, head of sales and marketing MCC.

The bettija’rt exhibits also remain virtually accessible on the Delicata website www.delicata.com.

Georges Meekers is Delicata’s head of sales and an award-winning wine writer.

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