On 28 and 29 March Renger de Bruin, curator History of Utrecht and Errol van de Werdt director Collection & Research of the Centraal Museum in Utrecht visited Malta to discuss possibilities for a cooperation between Utrecht and Malta in the field of cultural heritage. Both have a long tradition of caretaking for cultural heritage with a great diversity. In the frame of the candidature for cultural capital of Europe in 2018 explanatory talks to investigate possibilities started. On the initiative of the Utrecht department of Governmental, International and Subsidies (BIS) which already has a long tradition in supporting bilateral contacts between Malta and Utrecht the first steps have been made to concretize this cooperation between the two mentioned partners.
On the basis of earlier talks it became clear that although there are historical connections between Utrecht and Malta the most topical historical issue the ‘Treaty of Utrecht’’ is not the most suitable vehicle for starting cooperative programs. In contrast to this there is on both sides an extraordinary interest in exchanging knowledge and heritage on the topics of the military Orders (the Order of St John and the Teutonic Order) and the Utrecht Caravaggist on the one hand and on the other hand in the field of museology with themes like Collecting and deaccessioning, collection management, museum storage, opening up collections etc. In cooperation with heritage Malta and the University of Valetta Renger de Bruin and Errol van de Werdt started the first talks to set up an exchange programme with lectures and workshops which is now in planning. At the end of this year the first steps for executing a concrete programme will be made as a start for further structural and more extensive cooperation,. This can be seen as a step forwards to the realisation and concretisation of the candidature of the Utrecht/Maltese Cultural capital of Europe.
