Following the success of ŻiguŻajg Festival held last November as it celebrated its 10th anniversary online adapting to the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, Fondazzjoni Kreattività is now launching the second edition of ŻiguŻajg Season 2020-2021 under the auspices of Dr Lydia Abela. ŻiguŻajg Season made its first steps last year with the aim to continue to provide children and their families with the opportunity to engage with professionally-made artistic events throughout the year. The aim of ŻiguŻajg is to continue to flourish year after year.
ŻiguŻajg Season 2020-2021 is a programme made up of a variety of diverse events catering for children between the ages of 0 and 10. This edition, developed in collaboration with the ŻiguŻajg Festival team, boasts 13 projects by over 35 artists and 6 different creative forms; varying from literature to theatre, film to music, and puppetry.
During this launch, the Prime Minister’s wife Dr Lydia Abela said that the arts play a crucial role in a child’s personal development as well as their education. These young people need to have access to quality art in different contexts, with opportunities to develop their talents as well as their art. Dr Abela added that with this programme, children from a young age see the world around them from a different lens while acquiring new knowledge and skills. “It is my wish that programmes like ŻiguŻajg continue to create a solid foundation to improve creativity in a child’s everyday life”, stated Dr Lydia Abela.
Minister for National Heritage, the Arts and Local Government José Herrera stated that “after the extraordinary success of the 10th edition of ŻiguŻajg Festival, which reached around 13 thousand people, today we are here to announce the launch of ŻiguŻajg Season 2020-21. Over the last 7 years we have invested more than 2 million euro in this established Festival whose aim is to stimulate creative art among children. This year we are launching this programme with more enthusiasm and optimism and we look forward to a positive year in all cultural fields.”
Fondazzjoni Kreattività Chairman Rupert Cefai reiterated that with the emergence of the pandemic Covid-19, the creative sector has experienced a significant blow. “In spite of this challenge, at no point were there any plans to cancel ŻiguŻajg Festival and the Season. Even though ŻiguŻajg Festival took a different turn last November with all ten productions being streamed online for the first time, he stated that in this way ŻiguŻajg’s accessibility was increased, allowing it to be reached by a wide audience of about thirteen thousand people. He thanked schools around Malta and Gozo who took a great interest in the festival and students that had the opportunity to follow the shows from the schools themselves.
“The decision remains to continue supporting artists in the Maltese creative scene in these strange times. Therefore, even more so than usual, we are proud to be presenting a programme that supports the excellent work of creatives and, at the same time, welcoming Maltese families in an environment which is compliant with the directives of the health authorities,” Mr Cefai affirmed.
Spazju Kreattiv’s Artistic Director Daniel Azzopardi said that through this series of events, we are continuing to reach out to younger audiences whilst honing and sharing our love of creativity thus helping to empower younger generations to engage and appreciate creative expression. “By creating this season, we are also continuing to consolidate our long-term plan to have a strong repertoire to tour locally as well as internationally. This also goes hand in hand with ŻiguŻajg season’s being a staple of Spazju Kreattiv’s programme and its striving to consolidate its position as the heart of creativity, whilst pushing towards artistic excellence made to be appreciated by diverse communities.”
For more information visit www.ziguzajg.org/ and view the ŻiguŻajg Season 2020-2021 booklet in this link https://bit.ly/3bYc0Po.