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1. Fostering equality and young people involvement through cultural activities

2. Combating discrimination and poverty through cultural activities

Fostering equality and young people involvement through cultural activities

Creative Communities is a fund for community-led creative and artistic activities, primarily addressing local communities. It provides the opportunity for training, research and the development of artistic projects led by the community for the community, while celebrating cultural diversity.

Creative Communities aims to:

• Boost art and culture in the community through projects managed by voluntary organisations active in the local community
• Enable voluntary organisations to carry out projects related to culture and the arts in local communities
• Encourage active participation of local communities in the culture and arts sector
• Celebrate the cultural diversity found in the various towns and cities around Malta and Gozo 
• Support projects that encourage cultural integration
• Strengthen and increase knowledge of local tangible and intangible heritage

The projects the fund invests in are:

• Informal Training and Development Programmes which boost the artistic development of the applicant organisation or which encourage the creative development of the community. This may include exchange programmes on a local and international level
• Research related to aspects of the collective memory of the community and/or cultural identity of the community
• Events, productions and/or exhibitions which encourage active cultural participation, boost the community’s creative expression or appreciation of its history and identity

The Kreattiv funding programme engages educators and creative practitioners in dialogue and collaboration while encouraging students and educators to further engage within the creative sector. Kreattiv aims to bring creative practitioners into schools to work with teachers and students to inspire, learn, and create in a collaborative and innovative way.

The aims of the fund are to:

• Initiate creative projects in classrooms, schools and colleges through collaborations between teachers, students and creative practitioners and, in so doing, to facilitate creative education as a key tool for holistic development.
• Introduce children and young people to potential careers in the cultural and creative sector, through selected collaborations with higher educational institutions.
• Embed cultural and creative entrepreneurship in schools as expressed in the National Cultural Policy.
• Encourage collaboration between educational institutions, the culture and creative industries, and other relevant sectors such as science and technology.
• Create employment opportunities for creative professionals.
• Encourage creative collaborations amongst educational institutions, and partnerships with public and private cultural operators.

Il-Premju tal-President għall-Kreattività provides recognition and support at the highest level of the State to organisations, especially those working with vulnerable and disadvantaged groups, to engage these groups in creativity and arts-driven projects and thereby increase their level of integration and engagement in society. The Award is managed by the Office of the President and Arts Council Malta.

Combating discrimination and poverty through cultural activities

Since 2022, Arts Council Malta has launched a campaign addressing cultural rights, by publishing a resource pack entitled ‘Right to Culture’ to strengthen cultural exchange, inclusion, accessibility and participation quality in cultural life. The resource pack is an initiative to increase awareness regarding inclusivity and support implementing cultural rights in day-to-day cultural practice. The resource pack is intended as a reference guide and inspiration for anyone working with and for communities, striving for increased audience engagement and cultural participation. To question and analyse cultural rights, inclusivity, barriers encountered, needs and recommendations, key players from the sector and participant community members from diverse groups of society were invited to share their views and stories, and were involved throughout the entire research process. There was also consultation with the Platform of Human Rights Organisations in Malta (PHROM). While the resource pack was developed in the Maltese context, and as an aid for public cultural organisations, fund beneficiaries, civil society and operators, the insights and examples can be useful for cultural practitioners across diverse contexts. Beyond the resource pack, it has integrated the concepts of cultural rights in its funding schemes, wider strategic priorities and communication methods/channels. This has resulted into a funding mechanism aimed to enhance accessibility and provide equitable opportunities to arts funding, thematic funding aimed to support projects that address and endorse the principles of cultural rights, an international conference on cultural rights, training and development for stakeholders to integrate social sustainability in their practices, research projects that investigate issues related to cultural rights in the cultural sectors. and various media initiatives to promote ways in which cultural rights feature in everyone’s everyday life.