These are just a few of the 10 projects which have been selected as beneficiaries for the 2016 edition of the President’s Award for Creativity, an arts fund with a strong social and community emphasis.
The beneficiaries were announced during an awards ceremony held at the Verdala Palace yesterday.
A total of 10 projects were selected out of 17 applicants. In total, the projects received around €65,000. Each selected project received up to €6,000.
The potential of art and creativity in fostering social and cultural change and regeneration has been shown and proven in a number of contexts, including those characterised by social challenging environments, poverty and exclusion. This understanding is the basis for the President’s Award for Creativity.
The Award provides recognition and support at the highest level of the State to organisations, especially those working with vulnerable and disadvantaged groups, to engage those groups in creativity and arts-driven projects and thereby increase their level of integration and engagement in society.
The President’s Award for Creativity is linked to the implementation of the Arts Council Malta’s goals outlined in the Council’s Strategy2020, with a particular focus on providing more opportunities for people to engage in creativity.
The Award aims to support organisations and institutions that target the social needs and well-being of the community at large, especially the more vulnerable sectors and hard-to-reach groups – with a special emphasis on children, young people, minority groups and the elderly, through creativity and art.
It also aims to provide accessibility to disadvantaged groups to a wide range of quality art experiences and art-engagement activities, as well as a platform for young promising talent. The Award also aims to incentivise the contribution of arts organisations towards community development and collaborative arts projects.
The President’s Award for Creativity is coordinated by Arts Council Malta under the Patronage of Her Excellency, Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca, President of Malta.
“We are putting the artistic, creative and cultural agenda at the forefront and we recognize that through art, a person can not only find himself/herself but can also form new relationships, enhancing his/her sense of well-being," said Her Excellency, Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca, President of Malta, at the ceremony yesterday. She added that the Presidency is looking to strengthen this programme during the coming years.
More info on the fund here.
LIST OF BENEFICIARIES 2016
Create, Liberate, Integrate – St Jeanne Antide Foundation
A project consisting of a number of short creative programmes with diverse survivors of domestic violence and their children. The programmes focus on exploration of one’s creativity and sharing of creative skills, thus establishing a safe space where participants are encouraged to connect for healing, integration and stengthening of relationship between mother and child.
YeeP!Youth and Elderly explore Photography – Kopin
A project promoting personal, emotional, social, and skill development, as well as the inclusion of youth and elderly persons of various backgrounds, through the exploration of photography. Through the participants’ lenses, audiences will gain unique perspectives onto the past, present, and future of Malta. The project builds on the positive esperiences of YEP! Young People Explore Photography, supported by the President’s Award for Creativity 2015, now focusing on opportunities for intergenerational exchange.
Drum-Line – Opening Doors Association
A project linked to the core tuition and continued operation of the Association’s Music Group, that was launched in 2015.
Equality in Music – Down Syndrome Association Malta
A project introducing in Malta an inclusive musical notation system – known as figure notation – based on shapes and colours. The system makes reading of music possible for students who may not be able to read. The method will be taught by the Director of the Resonaari Special Music Centre Finland http://www.aec-music.eu/userfiles/File/polifonia-1-profession-wg-musicians-portrait-markku-kaikkonen.pdf, who is co-developer and teacher of the said method. Through the project, the Association aspires to share the method with music teachers and persons with intellectual disability in Malta, enabling wider appreciation and participation in the field of music.
Shaping Dreams Together – Karl Vella Foundation
A series of ceramics sessions, taking place over a year, for children aged 5–17 coping with terminal illness within the family – and particularly the social and psychological distress involved. The project focuses on children’s natural attraction to clay and on their abilities to be inspired and to create.
Arani! Ismagħni! Ifhimni!GĦINNI – Youth Residence (YR) at Mount Carmel Hospital
A project aimed at using theatrical creative expression to help core participants explore their issues, as well as helping them bring out their voices, with the support of a qualified drama therapist.
Beyond Sight – Spero : A Training Activity Centre for the Blind
A collaboration between a community of visually impaired persons and a number of creative professionals, seeking to raise awareness about different abilities and promote integration. The project primarily seeks to provide a thearapeutic artistic experience to visually impaired persons who were born blind, or acquired blindness through sickness. The process, spread over a year, will encourage Spero clients to participate in activities and experiment with various art techniques. The project includes sessions with school children, aimed at helping children gain understanding about blind persons and their abilities. The artistic works created will be exhibited at a number of festivals and venues, where the core participants will share their relevant experiences.
Il-Ħabib Tiegħi Will – Aġenzija Appoġġ
A theatre-based project aimed at encouraging young people inhabiting particular social contexts to use Shakespeare, his story, and his stories to reconstruct the core group’s own narratives – which will be shared among peers. The theatrical and narrative process is aimed to serve as a learning community and cultural experience in itself. In the second phase, the particpants will perform their work-in-progress in front of an audience of students and particular communities.
BENG: Boldly Exploring Navigating inGenuity – Youtheme Foundation
A project aimed at bringing together a number of young people who have dropped out from secondary school, offering them an opportunity to be make new contacts and learn new skills related to creative thinking, problem solving, idea generation, digital media, research, and communication. The work created will be disseminated, with a view to inspiring and easing integration of other youth in society, through creativity and the arts.
Tfal tal-Port – Film Grain Foundation
An educational outreach project with the objective of developing a creative habit in a cohort of teenagers from localities around the Grand Harbour. Through interaction with a number of film professionals, the participants will be given theopportunity to understand the dynamics of film, and to learn how they could tell their stories. The teenagers will be trained and mentored to explore, develop, and produce three original short documentaries focusing on pertinent social and cultural issues to be selected by the participants. The documentaries will be screened in various localities surrounding the harbour, shown on local TV, and uploaded online. The project is aimed at empowering participants, by giving them the confidence to express themselves and exposing them to new ideas and possibilities – with the understanding that, through film, it is possible to help eradicate cultural and social divides and to contribure to long-term cultural development.
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