The Foundation for Educational Services (FES) and Arts Council Malta (ACM) jointly announce a call for the submission/proposal of touring artistic and cultural projects targeting children and students aged 3-6 (grades K1 – 3 years, K2 – 4 years, Y1 – 5 years, Y2 – 6 years).   Activities are to be held during the scholastic year 2026/2027.

This call is intended to enable creative practitioners to generate captivating, creative, innovative, original as well as already existing work, for audiences in these age categories and to provide the opportunity for children to experience two activities as an extension to their formal education.

The objectives of the grant are to provide every child and student with diverse cultural experiences across different genres and styles, to enable educational growth for students attending Klabb 3-16, and to encourage collaboration between the educational and cultural sectors. In line with Strategy 2030, this initiative will support young people to engage in cultural and artistic activities, cultivating new audiences and thus contributing to the sustainability of the cultural and creative sectors.

Through this grant, students of Klabb 3-16 who are 3 to 6 years of age will be given an opportunity of experiencing at least six artistic productions during the scholastic year, which have been produced by creative professionals through a curated programme of at least six sessions. The programme will be formed of projects selected through a rigorous evaluation process following an open call for applications. Five projects will be selected and will be offered a budget of a maximum of ten thousand euro (€10,000) per project.

The objectives of the grant are to:

• provide children and students who attend Klabb 3-16 with professional cultural and artistic experiences of the highest quality;
• allow students to engage with skills and topics that are relevant to their age group through the arts;
• encourage creative practitioners to create and develop new work for young audiences and increase the programming capacity over longer periods with the purpose of fostering arts awareness amongst children.

Requirements in line with Arts Council Malta’s ongoing Strategy

In line with its commitment to supporting the arts through its sustainable and accountable approach to public investment, ACM draws applicants’ attention to the following in line with its Strategy 2030.

Applicants are required to consider the Right to Culture – Resource Pack when developing their proposal in relation to how they engage with communities and the considerations of everyone’s cultural rights in their work. The resource pack is aimed at increasing awareness regarding inclusivity and supporting the implementation of cultural rights in our day-to-day practice. 

Applicants are also required to consider the Charter for the Status of the Artist when proposing their operational and programming activities to ensure acceptable and decent working conditions for artists and creative practitioners which embraces artistic freedom, accessibility, formal/informal/non-formal skill recognition, decent socio-economic conditions, non-discrimination and equity, ethical considerations and adherence to intellectual property rights and international labour law. The Charter for the Status of the Artist is meant to provide a dynamic frame of reference for any legislation, policy, or initiative which directly or indirectly impacts artists and cultural and creative sectors, ensuring that any action is aligned with the ultimate long-term vision of elevating the status of artists in Malta in line with their tangible value to society.