The Alfred Mizzi Foundation is assisting a Heritage Malta project to establish a Fototeka which will ensure that the agency’s considerably rich collection of photographic material is conserved and stored. The sponsorship made it possible for Heritage Malta to provide training to one of its employees to attend training in the conservation of photographs and to develop a storage and handling plan for the collection.

Lindsay Buttigieg who works in the Book and Paper Conservation Department of the Conservation Division of Heritage Malta attended a seven-week course in London aimed at introducing and developing knowledge and skills in the preservation, conservation and restoration treatments of photographic materials. This was followed by a four-week ‘Master Class’ which consisted in a practical workshop, which included several techniques used in the conservation of photographic material.

The Alfred Mizzi Foundation also provided sponsorship for the purchase of the thousands of glass plate negatives paper enclosures which will be used to protect the photographic negatives from abrasions, dust, and fingerprints during handling.

In the meantime Gabriella Borg Bonaci, another Heritage Malta employee wrote a detailed management plan for the setting up a Fototeka for her dissertation for her Masters degree in Management of Cultural Heritage which is now being implemented.

Heritage Malta possesses a rich collection of photographic material including glass plate negatives and photographs. The collection is of immense historical importance and a project was started to preserve and house them.

The Alfred Mizzi Foundation was set up in 2004. The overall objective of the foundation is the promotion, diffusion and safeguarding of the Maltese culture and heritage, education, the environment and social solidarity.

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