MICAS International Symposium – MICAS

Vaulted Halls, MICAS, Floriana

18 June 2026
8: 30 – 16:00 hrs

19 June 2026
8.30– 15:00 hrs

Bookings for the symposium can be done below:

Two day Symposium 18 & 19 June 2026 – €50 BOOK HERE

One day Symposium 18 June 2026 – €30 BOOK HERE

One Day Symposium 19 June 2026 – €30 BOOK HERE

MICAS International Symposium

Museum Typologies and Public Aspiration: Heritage, Architecture, Contemporary Art, and the Small-State Condition

The MICAS International Symposium is conceived as a focused two-day research event, bringing together architects, architectural historians, curators, museologists, and sociologists to examine how contemporary art institutions emerge within historically layered environments, with particular attention to the relationship between architecture, museum formation, and public cultural presence.

In small island and small-state contexts, public aspiration places specific demands on cultural institutions and their architectural form. Taking place at MICAS, Malta International Contemporary Art Space, the symposium draws on this and other institutional examples to consider how these demands are negotiated in practice, and how architecture engages existing spatial and material structures to produce new forms of institutional and cultural presence.

The programme moves from the structural forces shaping such institutions, through questions of formation and architectural intervention, to the curatorial negotiation of historically layered sites and the role of practice in giving form to spaces for contemporary art. These discussions are anchored locally through an architectural walkthrough of the site led by the project architects and brought into focus through moderated discussion and a concluding research roundtable.

Symposium Programme

Day 1 MICAS: Malta International Contemporary Art Space Structural Conditions, Institutions & Architectural Intervention
08:30 – 09:00	Registration & Coffee
09:00 – 09:10	Opening Remarks
09:10 – 09:55	Godfrey Baldacchino – Professor of Sociology, University of Malta; Malta Ambassador-at-Large for Islands and Small States
09:55 – 10.15	Coffee Break
10:15 – 11:15	Dominique Poulot — Professor Emeritus, historian of museums and cultural heritage, Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne
11:15 – 11:35	Dr. Georgina Portelli – Vice-Chair and Chair of the Education Committee, MICAS
11:35 – 12:45	Lunch
12:45 – 13:45	Francesco Dal Co – Professor Emeritus, architectural historian, critic, and longstanding editor of Casabella, IUAV Venice
13:45 – 15:30	Architectural walkthrough: MICAS in Situ – Walkthrough Orientation by Marco Mulazzani – Professor of the History of Architecture, University of Ferrara – Architectural Walkthrough by Carlo Terpolilli – Professor of Architectural Design, University of Florence; founding partner, Ipostudio Architects; architect of the MICAS galleries
15:30 – 16:00	Closing Remarks

Day 2 Architecture and the Contemporary Art Museum
08:30 – 09:00	Arrival Coffee
09:00 – 10:00	Alina Payne, Professor of History of Art and Architecture, Harvard University; Paul E. Geier Director of Villa I Tatti, Florence
10:00 – 10:20	Coffee Break
10:20– 10:40	Edith Devaney – Artistic Director, MICAS; formerly senior curator, Royal Academy of Arts, London
10:40 – 11:40	Adam Caruso – Professor of Architecture and Construction, ETH Zürich; founding partner, Caruso St John Architects
11:40 – 13:00	Lunch
13:00 – 14:30	Synthesis Roundtable: MICAS as Case
14:30 – 15:00	Closing Remarks