Applicants may be:

• Creative professionals/individual artists
•⁠  ⁠Entities registered with the Malta Business Registry (including companies, partnerships, foundations and organisations/associations)
•⁠  ⁠Groups, collectives and consortia
•⁠  ⁠Registered cooperatives
•⁠  ⁠Voluntary Organisations enrolled with the Commissioner for Voluntary Organisations.

Click here to download the guidelines and click here to download the application template.

Application deadline: 25th February 2025

Ranking Order

Beneficiary: Text Catalogue

Reference number: IPS55-25-5241

Project Title: Spreepark – A Living Monument

Amount awarded: €1,972

Spreepark – A Living Monument is an artistic research project developed by Ella Fleri Soler and Andrew Darmanin, forming the collective Text Catalogue (the applicants), in collaboration with Daphne Bakker and Fay Darmawi. Together, they form Memoria, the residency group selected for the international summer residency at Berlin’s Spreepark Art Space, taking place from July 7 to September 19, 2025.

Beneficiary:  Unfinished Foundation

Reference number: IPS02-25-5003

Project Title: Unfinished Art Space sends artist to Go!2025 Biennale

Amount awarded: €1,957

Unfinished Art Space is sending young Maltese artist Keit Bonnici to represent Malta within the 2025 biennale, which this year is taking place in Nova Gorica / Gorizia, Slovenia, and is part of the official programme of GO! 2025 – European Capital of Culture Nova Gorica – Gorizia.

Beneficiary:  Victor Agius

Reference number: IPS57-25-5244

Project Title: Faenza Prize – International Biennial of Contemporary Ceramics – Faenza Italy

Amount awarded: €1,550

This totemic sculpture, composed of diverse earths, pigments, and construction materials, intertwines digital and tactile remnants of the artist’s performance. It reflects hidden rituals tied to sacred subterranean matter and the Anthropocene. Agius uses clay, ceramics, and performance as a statement, interrogating consumption, decay, and environmental destruction. His practice extends beyond the studio, engaging directly with landscapes impacted by unsustainable development.

Beneficiary:  Steve Hili

Reference number: IPS17-25-5097

Project Title: Steve Hili European Stand-Up Comedy Tour

Amount awarded: €2,000

Maltese Stand up comedian Steve Hili will tour Central Europe headlining in comedy clubs in two different countries. As well as performing Steve will be using this opportunity as a way of building up an audience, and to create links that can potentially be used by other Maltese acts in the future.

Beneficiary:  Francesca Grima

Reference number: IPS26-25-5125

Project Title: Showcase performance for Gypsy/Roma Festival

Amount awarded: €2,000

Puerto Flamenco has been invited to present a showcase performance in Paris in September 2025, organised by the team behind Festival Printemps Tsigane, a leading festival dedicated to Roma/Gypsy culture. This showcase serves as an opportunity to establish connections with new audiences, festival organisers, and the Roma artistic community, with the goal of securing a full performance at Printemps Tsigane in spring 2026.

Beneficiary:  Wioletta Kulewska

Reference number: IPS04-25-5014

Project Title: International Exhibition at the Muzeum im. Jana Dzierżona in Poland

Amount awarded: €2,000

The Museum im. Jana Dzierżona in Kluczbork, Poland, will host “I Walk This Earth All by Myself,” a solo exhibition by Wioletta Kulewska Akyel, from July to September 2025. This marks the artist’s first exhibition in her hometown and offers a unique opportunity for Polish audiences to engage with her work. The exhibition showcases a collection of new paintings, watercolors, and frescos, both large and small-scale, created between 2022 and 2025.

Beneficiary: Simone Spiteri

Reference number: IPS08-25-5060

Project Title: Artist Residency- Syros Island

Amount awarded: €1,980

A writing residency on Syros Island offering artists a shared creative space. The program fosters collaboration and artistic growth through feedback sessions, group activities, and a supportive community within an ideal environment for deepening one’s practice and engaging with the local and international creative scene.

Beneficiary:  Ryan Falzon

Reference number: IPS52-25-5235

Project Title: Selected Artist – Ostrale Biennale (Dresden, Germany)

Amount awarded: €1,802

The project is intended to facilitate visual artist and author Ryan Falzon’s attendance at the opening of the 15th edition of the Ostrale Biennale, held at the robotron-Kantine in Dresden, Germany. The opening is scheduled for Friday, 6 June 2025, with the event running until 5 October 2025. Falzon has been selected as one of the featured artists for this year’s edition, which centres around the theme of colour as meditation, communication, and identification.

Beneficiary: Daniela Attard

Reference number: IPS18-25-5101

Project Title: Songs of Extinction: Artist residency and printmaking workshop in Iceland, tracing the roots and stories of extinct and near extinct birds

Amount awarded: €2,000

Maltese artist and designer ‘iella’ will pursue a short residency of 2-6 weeks in Iceland, investigating the last known sighting and killing of the Great Auk, using this research as a springboard for tracing the roots and stories of other extinct and near-extinct birds. This project is partially inspired by a bird once common in the Maltese island declared extinct in November 2024 – the Slender-billed Curlew, the haunting last recorded song of the now extinct Kauaʻi ʻōʻō bird, and previous research in rural Australia.

Beneficiary: Trevor Borg

Reference number: IPS41-25-5206

Project Title: We Are Here

Amount awarded: €2,000

We Are Here is an artistic inquiry into the shifting terrains of the Anthropocene. Situated within the prestigious MOMART Gallery in Matera, Italy, this exhibition presents an eco-critical exploration through drawing, painting, sculpture, and video. By recontextualising familiar images and placing them in unfamiliar, sometimes disorienting settings, the works invite reflection on our precarious relationship with the planet and the fragile interdependencies that shape ecosystems.

Beneficiary: Mighty Boards Ltd.

Reference Number: IPS45-25-5224

Project Title: Presenting new games at GenCon 2025

Amount awarded: €2,000

In 2025, Mighty Boards plans to exhibit and participate at Gen Con, the largest and most influential tabletop gaming convention in North America under its own name. This marks a pivotal step for the studio, allowing it to introduce its creative work to a wider audience, forge meaningful connections, and engage directly with key figures in the industry. Gen Con offers a space where game makers, illustrators, writers, and players come together in celebration of the art of game design, making it an essential opportunity for Mighty Boards to showcase its artistic vision and engage in cultural exchange.

Beneficiary: Costantino Oliva

Reference Number: IPS07-25-5053

Project Title: “Night Parade of 100 Demons” at ArtBit and BitSummit (Kyoto, Japan)

Amount awarded: €2,000

In July 2025, Night Parade of 100 Demons will be part of a prestigious art exhibition in Kyoto, which will also include a showcase in BitSummit, Japan’s biggest indie game festival. The game has in fact been selected to be part of art bit – Contemporary Art and Indie game Culture, a group show that co-exhibits works of contemporary art that have a connection with video games as well as indie games based on artistic concepts.

Beneficiary: Zofia Stelmaszczyk

Reference Number: IPS39-25-5201

Project Title: Participation in the Arts Festivals Summit 2025 Edinburgh

Amount awarded: €1,587

The Arts Festivals Summit 2025, organized by the European Festivals Association (EFA) in collaboration with the Edinburgh International Festival, Festivals Edinburgh, and the City of Edinburgh, is scheduled from 27 to 30 April 2025. The summit aims to foster dialogue and collaboration among festival professionals, policymakers, and cultural organizations, focusing on the role of arts festivals in shaping a better world.  I will represent Malta’s festival ecosystem, ensuring that local artists and cultural managers benefit from greater mobility, funding, and collaboration opportunities.

Beneficiary: Diellza Ilgner

Reference Number: IPS24-25-5120

Project Title: IETM Berlin Plenary Meeting 2025

Amount awarded: €559

The IETM Berlin Plenary Meeting 2025, “Transformative Arts in Complex Times,” is a critical gathering addressing current challenges in Berlin’s performing arts landscape. As an artist with experience in politically engaged performance and multimedia storytelling, I seek to participate in this vital dialogue about artistic resilience during political and economic uncertainty.

Beneficiary: Bettina Hutschek

Reference Number: IPS42-25-5209

Project Title: Encountering Atlantis Performance Lecture

Amount awarded: €2,000

Through interviews with “Atlantologists” and scientists, the project delves into the philosophical questions surrounding belief systems, knowledge systems, and the boundary between science and pseudo-science. The performance, as part of a poetic documentary project, explores the myth of Atlantis, particularly the claim that it was located near Malta. What do we know for sure, what do we choose to believe, and where to draw the line between believing and knowing?

Beneficiary: Aldith Gauci

Reference Number: IPS40-25-5202

Project Title: Ecoperformance-making: Sharing findings at CARPA9

Amount awarded: €1,058

I have been accepted to present during the CARPA9 Conference programme in Helsinki 28-30 August 2025. This conference is a biennial international conference on artistic research focusing specifically on the performing arts: The Colloquium on Artistic Research in Performing Arts (CARPA). The conference is organised by the Performing Arts Research Centre Tutke at the University of the Arts, Helsinki’s Theatre Academy (www.uniarts.fi/en). My presentation, “Aesthetic Responses to the Ecological Crisis in the Indigenous Jola Masquerades of Senegambia”, will make part of the conference strand: Ecological Performance Making.

Beneficiary: Morsrot

Reference Number: IPS28-25-5140

Project Title: Wacken Festival Participation Funding

Amount awarded: €2,000

Malta is set to make history this summer as, for the first time ever, the country will be represented at the world-renowned Wacken Open Air Festival in Germany. Known as the pinnacle of heavy metal festivals, Wacken has hosted the biggest names in the genre for over three decades, drawing thousands of fans from across the globe. This year, Malta’s own Morsrot will take the stage, marking a milestone moment for the country’s metal scene. Morsrot, an up-and-coming metal band, earned their place at Wacken through the New Forces competition, an event held at The Garage, a local music venue.

Beneficiary: Ghaqda Muzikali Immakulata Kuncizzjoni

Reference number: IPS05-25-5016

Project Title: Cultures in Harmony: Uniting at Carpineto

Amount awarded: €2,000

The Immaculate Conception Band Club from Ħamrun is planning a cultural exchange visit to Carpineto Romano, Italy, in December 2025. This initiative aligns with the existing partnership between the Ħamrun Local Council and Carpineto Romano, both of which honor the Immaculate Conception as their patron saint.

Beneficiary: Nigel Baldacchino

Reference number: IPS19-25-5102

Project Title: Promise Litter – Artist Residency & Solo Exhibition at DATZ museum of art

Amount awarded: €2,000

A month-long artist residency hosted by Datz Press in Seoul, South Korea, producing work from the series Promise Litter to be exhibited in the beneficiary’s namesake first solo exhibition, taking place at the Frame space in Datz Museum at the end of the stay.

The beneficiary will be accompanied by the curator Anne Immelé for the entire month. Funding is hereby sought to cover travel expenses to and from Seoul, including basic expenses incurred for transit within the city.

Beneficiary: Locals Malta

Reference Number: IPS38-25-5193

Project Title: Locals Malta to perform in Germany

Amount awarded: €1,535

Promoting Local Talent in Germany is an international artistic and cultural exchange initiative led by Locals Malta. The project aims to showcase Maltese DJs at the LINK Collaboration – DREC x Locals Malta (https://ra.co/labels/16414) event, taking place on 29th May 2025 at MAW Magdeburg, Germany. The event will feature three Maltese DJs, including one from Locals Malta, performing alongside German artists.