The President’s Fund for Creativity is one of a series of initiatives aimed at strengthening inclusivity, community development, and well-being through cultural engagement and creative expression. This fund is linked to the implementation of Arts Council Malta’s Strategy 2030.
The President’s Fund for Creativity champions the sharing of lesser-known stories that bind us together, ensuring no one is left behind. It supports participatory creative practices with hardly reached and marginalised groups, fostering safe and trustworthy spaces where people feel empowered to come together and explore their creativity to express their ideas and feelings.
The President’s Fund for Creativity invests specifically in collaborative creative processes that strengthen communal connection, encourage critical thinking, and enable collective creation – finding meaning in small, meaningful moments that inspire hope and positive social change. Applications may seek support for a pilot initiative, or for the development of an initiative that the organisation has already tried and tested.
Throughout this journey, the fund enables creatives to build deeper relationships with communities and facilitate cultural engagement as a pathway to holistic well-being. It supports initiatives that challenge creative stagnation and actively advocate for the inclusion and celebration of diversity by expanding how people envision themselves, others, and the world around them.
At its core, the President’s Fund for Creativity serves as a vital recognition, at the highest level of the state, of the power of arts and culture in addressing a pressing need for social sensitivity and authentic voices. It promotes an inclusive society that fosters creativity, confronts difficult issues, and collaboratively seeks solutions together, one shared experience at a time.
The fund forms part of our funding programmes for community exchange, which aim at investing in:
- Increased cultural participation across Malta and Gozo;
- Better understanding and engagement between artists and communities;
- More diversity in cultural programming;
- More importance devoted to a culture that is much more representative of Maltese society in general;
- Sustainable development.
The President’s Fund for Creativity aims at:
- Bringing together creative practitioners, on the one hand, and hardly-reached and marginalised groups, on the other hand, and to foster safe and trustworthy spaces where people feel empowered to engage and explore their creativity to express ideas and feelings;
- Supporting practices designed to foster diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging, well-being, and regeneration through cultural engagement and creative expression;
- Providing hardly reached and marginalised groups with accessibility to a wide range of arts experiences and cultural engagement opportunities;
- Incentivising the contribution of organisations, entities, and institutions towards community development and well-being through cultural engagement and creative expression.
The application shall clearly demonstrate the benefits of the project/programme/practice to hardly reached and marginalised groups.
The lead partner may collaborate with one or more other organisations and/or with one or more individual practitioners to develop a community arts project/programme/practice that combines the highest standards of quality and good practice, both from the artistic perspective and from the social perspective.
Consistent with Strategy 2030, and with Arts Council Malta’s commitment to supporting the arts through a sustainable and accountable approach to public investment, with particular attention to the strategic areas of fair practices, community, and inclusion, applicants are encouraged to give due consideration, where appropriate, to the principles outlined in the requirements.
Moreover, ACM draws applicants’ attention to the following pursuant with ACM’s strategic priorities:
Right to Culture – Resource Pack, with particular regard to community engagement and the adoption of a rights-based approach to their work. This 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 expected to give due consideration, as appropriate, to the principles outlined in the Charter for the Status of the Artist, to ensure fair and just working conditions for artists, embracing artistic freedom, accessibility, formal/informal/non-formal skill recognition, appropriate socio-economic conditions, non-discrimination and equity, due ethical considerations and upholding intellectual property rights and international labour law. The Charter for the Status of the Artist provides a dynamic frame of reference for legislation, policies, and initiatives which directly or indirectly impact artists and cultural and creative sectors, ensuring that actions are aligned with the ultimate long-term vision of elevating the status of artists and cultural workers in Malta in line with their value in society.
The President’s Fund for Creativity is managed jointly by the Office of the President of the Republic and Arts Council Malta.
To support prospective applicants, an online information session will be held on Monday, 8 June 2026 at noon. During the session, practical guidance will be provided on the aims of the scheme, the eligibility criteria, and the application process, and there will also be a questions-and-answers session.
Participants can join here:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81632162805?pwd=Z854ESowe2UUMyVnGUvznO0BDBhMae.1