Half of the EEA Norway Grant funds are being allocated towards civil works and the rehabilitation of the Malta Maritime Museum premises, including a significant expansion of the museum display area for visitors, structural upgrades and the creation of new space for the reserve collection. The visitor experience within the museum will be improved through innovative designs, including reimagining the ground floor of the museum and opening other spaces, such as the roof, to be accessible and engaging.
The remaining half of the grant is being invested in digitising 2600 artefacts within the Malta Maritime Museum. This is a major first for Heritage Malta and part of a long term project to digitise hundreds of thousands of items in the national collection, ranging from paintings to porcelain, archaeological artefacts, arms and armour, natural history specimens, clothing, and intangible cultural heritage assets. High quality equipment is being used to capture still images, 3D laser scans, photogrammetry and videography.
The project also finances the creation of a Collections Management System to act as a fetched accessible database of rich information, knowledge and various forms of digital media of Malta’s cultural heritage assets, focusing on the Maritime Museum collection.