A coveted recognition for UM’s Head of the Department of Art and Art History, and well-known Maltese art critic, Prof. Keith Sceiberras.
Prof. Sciberras was awarded the Pio Alferano 2021 Award alongside six other international artists of international repute, amongst Gigi D'Alessio (singer-songwriter), Massimo Osanna (general director of the Mic Museums), Federico Palmaroli , aka Osho (cartoonist), Gennaro Sangiuliano (director of Tg2), Luca Miniero (director), Eleonora Ivone (actress and director), Angelo Longoni (director and writer).
The Pio Alferano 2021 Award has been awarded since 2012 and this year’s 9th edition took place on the 4 September in the Belvedere San Costabile, in the medieval village of Castellabate (Salerno).
The awards are intended towards international personalities who have distinguished themselves in the fields of art, culture, the environment, entrepreneurship and the social sector. They are aimed at talented people who intend to give impetus in particular to the promotion and safeguarding of the artistic, landscape, historical and archaeological heritage.
This year’s event was under the artistic direction of the art critic Vittorio Sgarbi, an Italian art critic, art historian, and he acted as a curator in 2011 at the Venice Biennale, an International Art Exhibition.
During the event, Sgharbi said “This award is a baptism, it consecrates Keith as an Italian by choice, because Malta is like Italy. The Maltese history of the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries is part of the history of Italian art. Keith is smart, good and generous, and his work unites two nations into one civilisation”.
© 2016 by Fondazione Pio Alferano e Virginia Ippolito.
Prof. Sciberras is a great expert on Roman Baroque culture and Italian Baroque painting and Caravaggio. A few weeks ago, he unveiled the value of the , being held at MUŻA (Valletta) until the end of October 2021. Prof Sciberras is very active in the arts community in Malta, in fact he is also the vice president of the of Malta.
Prof. Sciberras proudly says "The prize awards lifetime achievement in the fields of art, music, theatre, cinema, journalism, and culture in general. My work on the study of Italian Baroque art, especially that on Caravaggio, was singled out. The ceremony brought together scholars and personalities from these sectors. I was particularly honoured to be the only non-Italian selected for the award.”
You can watch the award event below
