The Malta International Contemporary Art Space (MICAS) is the country’s first-ever museum dedicated to contemporary art.

Set against the backdrop of the restored Ospizio, it nestles within a 17th-century fortified line overlooking Marsamxett Harbour and the capital city of Valletta, a UNESCO World Heritage site. This €30 million project, which is partly EU funded, comprises a multifaceted campus of four storeys of indoor gallery spaces, outdoor sculpture gardens, restored fortifications, a shop and a cafeteria.

MICAS has already started displaying works in several outdoor spaces across Valletta by acclaimed international artists, such as Conrad Shawcross, Ugo Rondinone, Pierre Huyghe, Cristina Iglesias and Michele Oka Doner.

Its annual editions of International Art Weekend have celebrated these contemporary artists, promoted dialogue and culture, and ways of understanding how artists help mediate and interpret the world we live in, transform space and question society. With an artistic programme that reflects a carefully managed selection process, MICAS will present internationally focused exhibitions of the highest quality, to develop original ideas, honour diversity and establish relationships with global artists and museums.

In October 2024, MICAS will open its doors to the public with an exhibition from visionary Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos, whose works exhibited in Malta will celebrate the completion of this heritage project and its contemporary architecture.

MICAS’ artistic independence will be reaffirmed by a programme that sets it apart from other government-funded cultural organisations as an international non-profit museum, offering the public and cultural travellers alike outstanding international contemporary art exhibitions, exceptional military architecture and unforgettable harbourscapes.