Ombudsman meets MCAST Creative Arts students preparing “Art for Rights” Exhibition

Ombudsman meets MCAST Creative Arts students preparing “Art for Rights” Exhibition

Published June 10, 2025

The Parliamentary Ombudsman, Judge Joseph Zammit McKeon, today visited the Institute for the Creative Arts at the Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology (MCAST) in Mosta. The visit formed part of the run-up to the Office of the Ombudsman’s thirtieth-anniversary celebrations and offered an opportunity to meet the students whose work will feature in the forthcoming exhibition 'Art for Rights: Visualising Freedom, Justice and Good Governance.'

The exhibition, to be inaugurated in Parliament next October 2025 on the eve of the international conference 'Upholding Good Governance in Challenging Times: The Role of the Ombudsman,' will explore fundamental human rights and freedoms through painting.

Twenty-one (21) MCAST students, guided by senior lecturer and artist Mr Darren Tanti and fine-arts lecturer Ms Andrea Pullicino, are participating as part of their voluntary Corporate Social Responsibility hours. During the visit the Ombudsman announced that he has invited Mr Tanti and Ms Pullicino to serve as co-curators of the exhibition who gladly accepted. The students outlined the principles that guided their individual paintings. concepts behind their individual pieces, describing the background for the subject matter of their work.

Judge Zammit McKeon stressed that the exhibition is intended to give young artists a platform in Malta’s highest democratic institution, enabling them to translate their understanding of human rights into visual form. Speaking with each participant, he underlined that the students are free to interpret human-rights themes in their own way and encouraged them to be expressive in their work, noting how art can challenge, inspire, and inform public discourse.

“Art has the power to convey complex ideas in an immediate and effective way,” the Ombudsman said. “By inviting emerging artists to take part in our anniversary programme, we aim not only to celebrate thirty years of service but also to foster a pro-active debate on the values that underpin respect for human rights.”

The ‘Art for Rights’ exhibition will open in Parliament in October 2025 and will be accessible to the public throughout the month.