Play Video
About MICAS

Malta International Contemporary Art Space (MICAS) is intended to strengthen Malta’s cultural infrastructure by providing a platform for contemporary art and internationalisation. With its launch, Malta is about to take a great step forward and become a proactive player in the contemporary art world.

Scheduled to open in 2024,  MICAS will not only become a showcase for local contemporary artists but will also engage with international institutions to present groundbreaking works by acclaimed artists from all over the world.

MICAS aims to positively energise Malta’s cultural ecology and impact that of the Euro-Mediterranean region it inhabits. The MICAS mission is to be an advocate of contemporary art by raising public awareness to the significance of the visual arts in contemporary life, and by bringing to the forefront the way art and artists help mediate and interpret the world we live in.

MICAS is a Government of Malta infrastructural legacy project for the Culture and the Arts sector. MICAS will be realised through state funded restoration of historical fortifications and its galleries will be delivered in 2023. This project is part-financed by the European Union under the European Regional Development Fund – European Structural and Investment Funds 2014-2020.

The Ospizio
The Ritirata

The Ospizio

Floriana’s Balzunetta district will soon be hosting Malta’s new contemporary art space, which will be realised through the repurposing of the sites of the Old Ospizio and the Ritirata within the magnificent Floriana Lines of fortifications overlooking Marsamxett harbour.

Read more
The Ospizio
The Ritirata
Previous
Next

The Ritirata

The Micas project footprint extends further down along the Polverista curtain, to the La Vittoria bastion, and the adjacent Ritirata and San Salvatore Counterguard with its spectacular arcone, or skew arch. 

Read more

Phyllis Muscat

Chairperson

An entrepreneur by profession, Phyllis Muscat has established herself as one of Malta’s leading administrators, both in the public and private sector.

In 2015, Phyllis successfully led the Taskforce of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM). As Head of the Taskforce, Phyllis was entrusted by the Government of Malta, to coordinate the administrative and logistical arrangements for all events. She now retains the position of Director on the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council (CWEIC) Advisory Board. She also serves as Chairperson for the Coordinating Board for Cultural Projects (CBCP).

Throughout her professional career in the private sector, Phyllis set up several businesses within the health and wellness sector. She was also the first woman in Malta to be appointed Chairperson of a leading media house, ONE Group. Phyllis also served on the executive committee of the Maltese-American Chamber of Commerce, the Malta Association of Women in Business and Action for Breast Cancer Foundation and co-founded the European Confederation of Professional Beauticians and Cosmeticians (CEPEC) and the Malta Association of Beauty-Therapists (MABT).

Francis Sultana

Board Member

Francis Sultana is one of the world’s foremost interior and furniture designers, working across residential, hospitality and commercial projects around the world. In 2019 he celebrated the tenth anniversary of his eponymous studio. The atelier studio is based in St James’s, London in the same building as David Gill Gallery, of which Sultana is also Artistic Director & CEO. 

Francis Sultana is the go-to interior designer for international collectors, many of whom have major contemporary art and design collections. Loved for his unique ability to merge the residential requirements of a domestic or commercial space with often large-scale visual art, sculpture and installation pieces, his studio is working on projects in the UK and across Europe, the middle East, and the US currently. 

One of only a handful of UK designers to be featured in Architectural Digest US magazine’s annual AD100, Francis Sultana is cited as one of Wallpaper’s Top 20 Interior Designers and is listed on House & Garden and AD Italia’s Top 100. AD France included Francis as a Grandmaster of Interior Design, placing him with the six other greats in the world of luxury interior design today. His properties are regularly featured in magazines all over the world. He was the only British designer invited to join AD Collections in Paris and his work continues to garner him a global and very loyal following. 

Read More

Georgina Portelli

Board Member

Georgina Portelli is a specialist in concept formation, language representation and multilingualism, and holds a PhD (Psych) from the University of London. She has worked extensively in the education, communications and concept development fields as well as in the cultural and creative sector as a researcher, editor and policy advisor. As an independent curator, she has a special interest in interactive art, memory and negotiated boundaries of the self, radical otherness and the politics of displacement. Her current work focuses on diaspora and memory studies, culture for social inclusion, sponsorship for the arts, and the forging of creative partnerships between art, science and other disciplines.

Georgina is presently chair of the Creativity Trust Fund and is a board member of Fondazzjoni Kreattività at Spazju Kreattiv. A passionate champion of creativity and contemporary art, she is a founding member of ‘ISTRA’ a contemporary art and research foundation where she is co-chair for research.

Claire Cassar

Board Member

Dr. Cassar is a lawyer by profession who has worked in information communication and technology for over 20 years. She has worked in large corporates and start-ups, and is an entrepreneur who has set up various companies in partnership, focusing on out-of-home advertising as well as information security. Dr. Cassar has been a board member at MICAS since 2018. She is also a chair at Vistage Malta, facilitating peer advisory groups for CEOs and business leaders in the local community. 

Dr. Cassar continues to provide commercial legal advice to a select number of clients. 

Clive Aquilina

Board Member
Clive Aquilina graduated in European Studies and is currently reading for a Bachelor of Laws degree at the University of Malta. He is a goal driven and hardworking individual that does not shy away from challenges, with some of his distinct characteristics being an avid creativity and an eye for detail.

Over the years, Clive has been heavily involved in various student organisations, both related to his areas of studies and on a philanthropic level. Through such experiences, Clive gained significant leadership skills and acquired the skill of managing and operating within a team.

His responsibilities included, amongst many others, PR, budgeting, fund management and logistical and organisation duties for events, activities and campaigns such as 'The Student Fund'.
Sign up for our Newsletter

European Union

Operational Programme I - European Structural and Investment Funds 2014-2020 "Fostering a competitive and sustainable economy to meet our challenges". Project may be part-financed by the European Regional Development Fund Co-financing rate: 80% European Union Funds; 20% National Funds.

Follow us

Facebook-f Instagram

Designed and developed by redorange © 2018

Francis Sultana

Board Member

Francis Sultana is one of the world’s foremost interior and furniture designers, working across residential, hospitality and commercial projects around the world. In 2019 he celebrated the tenth anniversary of his eponymous studio. The atelier studio is based in St James’s, London in the same building as David Gill Gallery, of which Sultana is also Artistic Director & CEO. 

Francis Sultana is the go-to interior designer for international collectors, many of whom have major contemporary art and design collections. Loved for his unique ability to merge the residential requirements of a domestic or commercial space with often large-scale visual art, sculpture and installation pieces, his studio is working on projects in the UK and across Europe, the middle East, and the US currently. 

One of only a handful of UK designers to be featured in Architectural Digest US magazine’s annual AD100, Francis Sultana is cited as one of Wallpaper’s Top 20 Interior Designers and is listed on House & Garden and AD Italia’s Top 100. AD France included Francis as a Grandmaster of Interior Design, placing him with the six other greats in the world of luxury interior design today. His properties are regularly featured in magazines all over the world. He was the only British designer invited to join AD Collections in Paris and his work continues to garner him a global and very loyal following. 

In 2018 Francis was announced as an Ambassador of Culture for Malta. He supports many of Malta’s main cultural entities especially MICAS, Malta’s new museum space which opens in 2024. MICAS will house Malta’s contemporary art & design collection and will support local contemporary art but will also focus on attracting international cultural institutions, artists, educational programmes, and touring exhibitions to Malta. He is also very engaged in supporting new cultural tourism to Malta as part of his endeavours to strengthen both Malta’s local arts sector and its perception internationally. 

Having co-founded the Design Fund for the Victoria & Albert Museum, Francis now sits on the Victoria & Albert Museum’s Advisory Council. He is co-head of the Cultural and Social Affairs Committee of the Serpentine Galleries and sits on the International Council also. He is a member of the International Council for the Design Museum, London. He is Co-President of the Jury of PAD London and is also a member of the jury for PAD Paris.

The atelier produces annual collections of bespoke and limited-edition furniture and textiles under the Francis Sultana brand. Francis designs furniture, lighting and accessories and has created key pieces for important historical interiors such as Spencer House and historical work with The National Trust. Francis’s own work is known for his use of noble materials such as bronze, rock crystal and straw marquetry and bespoke fabrics. The studio strives to support artisanal skills and techniques from around the UK and Europe throughout its work.  

This year will see the launch of Francis’s hotel project for Oetker Collection with the refurbishment of the iconic Hotel La Palma in Capri. With collaborations including Reuben Brothers on a series of projects being announced later this Spring his new projects have been highly praised in the announcements from press globally of top hospitality for 2023.

Francis is currently collaborating on collections with some of Europe’s finest luxury brands including Bonacina and Ginori1735 in Italy and Galerie Diurne in France. Savoir & The Conran Shop in the United Kingdom and further new announcements of collections to be announced in April.

In 2019 Francis published his first large format book, Francis Sultana: Designs & Interiors, published worldwide by Vendôme and edited by Bronwyn Cosgrave. The book celebrates the career of Francis to date, as well as celebrating the designers and artists that have inspired him throughout his life. A new book is currently in production charting Francis’s custodianship of the Hunting Lodge, the landmark historic house and garden and former residence of the late British interior designer John Fowler.

Francis Sultana will open this autumn, Francis Sultana Home a new chapter in interior design retail which will showcase the breadth of the FS vision in the decorative and Fine Arts.

Sign up for
our Newsletter

No spam included.