Application deadline: 23rd September 2025
Ranking Order
Beneficiary: Marta Vella
Reference number: IPS15-25-6519
Project Title: Kavala Artist Residency
Amount awarded: €2,000
The “Sea & Urbanism” is an Artist In Residency program located in Kavala, Greece that provides a unique and inspiring environment for creative minds worldwide, offering a harmonious blend of living and working spaces that promote collaboration, diversity, and artistic exploration.
Beneficiary: Audrey Rose Mizzi
Reference number: IPS28-25-6580
Project Title: Participation in the 27th ICOM General Conference in Dubai – Novemeber 2025
Amount awarded: €2,000
Every three years, the International Council of Museums (ICOM) hosts its General Conference, the world’s leading event for museum and cultural heritage professionals. In 2025, it will be held in Dubai for the first time, positioning the Middle East as a hub for international cultural dialogue. The theme, “The Future of Museums in Rapidly Changing Communities,” will explore safeguarding intangible heritage, empowering youth, and embracing new technologies, featuring keynote speakers, masterclasses, and networking opportunities in a hybrid format.
As Marketing Executive at St John’s Co-Cathedral Foundation, Communications & Outreach Officer with ICOM Malta, and Arts & Culture Director within the National Youth Council, I advance Malta’s cultural and youth sectors. Participating allows me to represent Malta internationally, gain insights, and strengthen local heritage initiatives. Shortlisted for ICOM COMMS, I aim to contribute to global communication strategies, further enhancing Malta’s visibility and influence.
Beneficiary: Gabriel Chetcuti
Reference number: IPS38-25-6641
Project Title: Embodied Ruins: Reconfiguring Ornament through Digital Performance
Amount awarded: €1,650
Embodied Ruins: Reconfiguring Ornament is a collaborative R&D project by KLONN (Gabriel Chetcuti) with Creative Technologist Nick Theuma, facilitated by Play Office, Portsmouth. The project transforms architectural ornament into wearable artefacts using photogrammetry and 3D printing, treating heritage as mutable and performative. A costume and live performance will be captured via volumetric tools at CCIXR, producing hybrid outputs. Linking Malta and Portsmouth’s new sister-city relationship, the project builds cross-border heritage-making and pathways for future international co-productions.
Beneficiary: Rachel Gauci
Reference number: IPS31-25-6588
Project Title: New Dialogues: Contemporary piano music from Malta and Austria
Amount awarded: €1,440
Pianist Rachel Gauci will collaborate with composition students at the Tiroler Landeskonservatorium in Innsbruck, Austria. The project will culminate in a public solo recital featuring the premiere of these new works, presented alongside music by Maltese composers in an international context.
Beneficiary: Tara Dalli
Reference number: IPS39-25-6644
Project Title: Performance in Gwangju Biennale 2026
Amount awarded: €2,000
This project will feature a live performance by acclaimed Maltese dance artist Tara Dalli for the inaugural Maltese Pavilion at the 2026 Gwangju Biennale. During a one-week residency in Gwangju, Dalli will develop and present a site-responsive performance within the immersive installations of the pavilion, BEJN / IN-BETWEEN.
This fund will cover the costs associated with her participation, namely international flights and any local transport incurred within Gwangju during her residency. Leveraging her extensive professional experience, Dalli will create a movement vocabulary that physically embodies the pavilion’s core themes, offering a dynamic, human-scale expression of its concept and highlighting Malta’s contemporary artistic talent.
Beneficiary: Patrizia Madiona
Reference number: IPS10-25-6443
Project Title: Artist Residency AiRK Japan
Amount awarded: €2,000
This project supports my participation in the AiRK Artist-in-Residence in Kobe, Japan, followed by a group exhibition in Tokyo with Art Number 23. The residency provides dedicated studio space, accommodation, and opportunities for cultural and professional exchange, culminating in a work-in-progress exhibition in Kobe.
As a Maltese artist working in sculptural wall art, a medium still emerging locally, this residency offers valuable feedback and exposure within a more established international context.
Through open studios, exhibitions, and extensive documentation via social media, blogs, and Maltese media outlets, I will promote both my work and Malta’s cultural presence abroad while encouraging other Maltese artists to explore residencies and international opportunities.
Beneficiary: Lucien Houtkamp
Reference number: IPS02-25-6393
Project Title: Taiwan 2026
Amount awarded: €2,000
Luc Houtkamp is a Dutch, Malta-based composer, and musician with a long-standing music career, as an improviser on saxophone/clarinet and live electronics, and composer of electronic music and chamber music. Houtkamp has worked extensively in jazz, improvised and contemporary music, collaborating with numerous musicians on major festivals all over the world.
In 2015, he gave seven concerts, workshops, and lectures in Taiwan, where he left an indelible impression and a strong reputation. He has once more been invited to perform at the prestigious Lacking Sound Festival in Taipei, Taiwan, on 11 April 2026. Houtkamp will also perform a production with Taiwanese dancers on 15 and 17 April. In addition to these three main performances, he will play at six venues in several parts of Taiwan, solo and cross-cultural collaboration with local musicians, including ethnic instrumentalists. He will give two workshops, amongst others at NYCU university’s Institute of Music.
Beneficiary: Karina Fiorini
Reference number: IPS29-25-6584
Project Title: The 14th Geneva Writers Group Conference
Amount awarded: €1,211
The Geneva Writers Group Conference draws writers from diverse international backgrounds who are committed to telling impactful, timely narratives. It is a vibrant gathering that celebrates languages and cultures, where participants openly share their craft and creativity.
Beneficiary: Aidan Somers
Reference number: IPS32-25-6594
Project Title: AISO Academy at IMS Dubai 2025
Amount awarded: €2,000
AISO Academy will attend the International Music Summit (IMS) Dubai 2025 in November, represented by CEO Aidan Somers and PR & Community Engagement Leader Omar Elgeyouzi. The summit will provide a platform to present Malta’s music sector, strengthen international networks, explore collaborations, and gather knowledge on emerging trends in music technology and education.
Beneficiary: Gabriel Zammit
Reference number: IPS05-25-6407
Project Title: IKT Curators Congress
Amount awarded: €2,000
The beneficiary will participate in the 2026 IKT (International Association of Curators of Contemporary Art) Congress in Turin and Milan. The IKT Congress is held in a different city each year for an international network of curators to connect, share ideas, and broaden professional networks through a symposium on current curatorial thinking and immersion in/exposure to the cultural scenes of the host cities.
Beneficiary: REBEKAH CAMILLERI KAMSKY
Reference number: IPS22-25-6572
Project Title: Creative Growth through Photography Retreat in Scotland
Amount awarded: €2,000
In April 2026 I will attend the Elizabeth Gadd Scotland Creative Retreat on the Isle of Skye. This intensive week of field lessons, mentoring, and peer exchange will focus on landscape photography and self-portraiture in nature, led by Elizabeth Gadd and Kris Andres.
Through this training I will strengthen my skills in composition, light control, editing, and working with weather conditions, while also building an international network of photographers and collaborators.
The retreat will directly inform my practice in Malta. I will develop a new series focused on quiet natural spaces, share the techniques and lessons gained through a workshop with local creatives, and prepare a proposal for an exhibition at a local venue.
Beneficiary: Karl Friggieri
Reference number: IPS04-25-6405
Project Title: Metal Festival in Germany – 2026
Amount awarded: €2,000
The band has been invited to perform at the 10th edition of a prestigious Metal Festival in Bavaria, South Germany. This opportunity stands as a clear example of how support from Arts Council Malta has enabled Angelcrypt to gain international recognition. Having been noticed by festival organisers during previous performances in recent years, the band has now been officially invited to take part in this landmark event — a milestone made possible through the continued backing of the Arts Council.
Beneficiary: Paul Haber
Reference number: IPS24-25-6576
Project Title: Conversazioni cromatiche
Amount awarded: €2,000
Maltese ceramic artist Paul Haber and Italian artist Arturo Saccone, both well-travelled and highly experienced, are presenting a major contemporary ceramics exhibition in a three-floor gallery on Via Aurelia, near the Vatican in Rome. The exhibition will showcase Paul’s ceramic sculptures inspired by the Maltese landscape while also promoting Malta’s vibrant artistic scene on an international stage. Beyond the exhibition, both artists continue to share ideas and new techniques in their respective studios, enriching their practices through ongoing artistic exchange.
Beneficiary: Sam Vassallo
Reference number: IPS41-25-6649
Project Title: Organhaus residency
Amount awarded: €2,000
This funding will enable the Malta-based PONKS collective to undertake a prestigious residency at Organhaus in Chongqing, China. The project, SOLARPONK, will use the city’s iconic cyberpunk landscape as a catalyst to create new work exploring Solarpunk – a vision of futures that are ecologically sound and collectively focused. The residency involves producing site-specific installations, video works, and conducting workshops with local artists and students.
The investment directly supports Malta’s cultural sector by ensuring the artists’ physical presence for this critical exchange. In return, PONKS will bring the project’s outcomes back to Malta through a public talk, workshops, and a professionally published art book, enriching the local cultural dialogue with international perspectives.
Beneficiary: Michelle Gialanze
Reference number: IPS17-25-6546
Project Title: Venice Bienale Participation in Group at ECC
Amount awarded: €2,000
Resonant Structures examines the universal tension between identity and impermanence, offering a dialogue between structure, fragility, and memory. Each artist, rooted in a distinct geography and medium, reinterprets “structure” not merely as physical form but as a metaphor: emotional, ancestral, ecological, or societal.
Through textiles, ceramics, photography, drawing, painting, and sculptural silk, the exhibition maps the multiplicity of cultural heritage and contemporary sensibilities. It echoes the European Cultural Centre (ECC)’s ethos of “Time, Space, Existence,” by interrogating how structure emerges from deeply personal yet universally resonant themes.
This is a proposal for me to take part in a group exhibition with seven other artists. Each work contributes uniquely to a cohesive visual and emotional arc designed to engage the public across time and cultures.
Beneficiary: Joseph Gatt
Reference number: IPS08-25-6415
Project Title: London Book Fair 2026
Amount awarded: €1,939
Participation at the London Book Fair 2026 to consolidate my work as a translator and publisher, particularly by seeking international publishers for English language translations of Aphroconfuso publications.
Beneficiary: Alexander Mifsud
Reference number: IPS34-25-6636
Project Title: Alexander Mifsud – Touring Bassist for Kodin Hill & The Pressed Pills – 2025 November TOUR
Amount awarded: €1,300
A November 2025 UK tour consisting of eight shows, designed to build international exposure, establish industry contacts, and generate professional media assets to position the band within the European festival and touring circuit.
Beneficiary: Corneliu Cracana
Reference number: IPS37-25-6640
Project Title: Corneliu Cracana – Touring Guitarist for Kodin & The Pressed Pills – UK TOUR November 2025
Amount awarded: €1,300
A November 2025 UK tour consisting of eight shows, designed to build international exposure, establish industry contacts, and generate professional media assets to position the band within the European festival and touring circuit.
Beneficiary: Clayton Gauci
Reference number: IPS06-25-6409
Project Title: The Pressing Matters 2025 Tour ! – Kodin Hill & The Pressed Pills UK Tour
Amount awarded: €1,300
A November 2025 UK tour consisting of eight shows, designed to build international exposure, establish industry contacts, and generate professional media assets to position the band within the European festival and touring circuit.
Beneficiary: Cody Pace
Reference number: IPS36-25-6639
Project Title: Kodin Hill – Touring frontman for Kodin Hill N’ The Pressed Pills
Amount awarded: €1,300
A November 2025 UK tour consisting of eight shows, designed to build international exposure, establish industry contacts, and generate professional media assets to position the band within the European festival and touring circuit.
Beneficiary: Francesca Tranter
Reference number: IPS03-25-6400
Project Title: Global Artistic Engagement for Dance Festival Malta
Amount awarded: This project funds international travel to support artistic research, networking, and curatorial development for Dance Festival Malta 2026 (23–26 July 2026). As Artistic Director, I attend festivals abroad to view performances, engage with artists, and build collaborations that directly inform the festival’s programme. Travel also enables participation in roundtables, presentations, and artist exchanges, fostering connections that benefit both local and international dance communities. Funding will cover essential travel costs, ensuring the festival continues to present a diverse, innovative, and internationally informed programme.
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.
