The Project Support Scheme is one of Arts Council Malta’s tools to provide stable support for creative and cultural individuals, groups and organisations to plan, grow, develop and deliver ACM’s strategic goals and ongoing strategy, primarily addressing creative professionals and communities, by:
The scheme forms part of Arts Council Malta’s funding programmes which aim at investing in the development of quality-driven creative work which pushes the artists’ and the sector’s boundaries for more engaging creative experiences. The Project Support Scheme aims at supporting artists in taking creative risks to develop new work through research, experimentation and collaboration.
The scheme also supports exploratory projects that would allow creative professionals to experiment, test their work, collaborate and develop their ideas further. Applications submitted, may form part of the initial phase of a wider project / body of work, or can be self-contained, in order to provide creatives with time and space for excellent artistic concepts to develop in support of the creative process in any art form.
This scheme gives creative professionals support throughout the development and / or implementation phases and covers the time and resources needed for creative professionals and their collaborators to develop projects from their concepts.
Creative professionals/individual artists; Entities registered with the Malta Business Registry (including companies, partnerships, foundations and organisations/associations); Groups, Collectives and Consortia; Registered Cooperatives and Voluntary Organisations.
The deadline to apply is Monday 13th September 2021 at noon. Late applications cannot be accepted.
Click here to download guidelines and click here to download application form template.
Corrigendum – retroactive costs (18th June 2021)
Applicants are required to register a new profile as from January 2021.
Apply here.
To access past applications submitted until December 2020 you need to login on https://www.artscouncilmalta.org/login.
Results
Application Deadline: 13th September 2021
Applicant: Kristina Borg
Reference number: PSG06-21-641
Project Title: RNH Bighi through Communities' Stories
Amount awarded: €20,000
This research-based project aims to shine a light on the ex-Royal Naval Hospital (RNH) Bighi, located in Kalkara overlooking the entrance into the Grand Harbour. The site houses ESPLORA, Malta’s Interactive Science Centre and is led by the Malta Council for Science and Technology, among other organisations. The compounds of RNH Bighi, together with the outdoor areas, are more than a mere physical container hosting a series of exhibits, shows, presentations, workshops, conferences, weddings, public and private functions. Bighi provides a space, but moreover a place, with a rich and long history, thus a context. This research will indeed focus on the holistic context, taking into consideration the historical, architectural and design function of the place, but moreover its social and cultural function for the communities. The context thus becomes the message, the protagonist and the primary focus of study.
Applicant: ARC Research & Consultancy
Reference number: PSG15-21-688
Project Title: Medinea Gozo on Air
Amount awarded: €20,000
A consortium of six leading musical and cultural institutions from six countries from the Mediterranean basin, namely: Festival d'Aix en Provence (France); Ente Musicale di Nuoro (Italy); ARC Research & Consultancy (Malta); Univerza Ljubljani (Ljubljana); Escola Superior de Musica de Lisboa (Portugal); and Istanbul Technical University MIAM (Turkey) applied successfully to a new exceptional Erasmus Plus call as a response to the challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic to support partnerships for creativity in the frame of strategic partnerships programme. The Erasmus Plus project will take place in the six partner countries with one of the project modules taking place in Gozo. Within a tense geopolitical context which is now aggravated by the pandemic crisis, the Medinea network is convinced that culture, artistic training, and creation is the way to approach dialogue and intercultural relations between different peoples from the Mediterranean. Medinea intends to contribute, to energise and nourish the dialogue between the countries of the Mediterranean basin to strengthen the role of the sectors in favour of social inclusion and professional integration of young artists.
Applicant: Luke Saydon
Reference number: PSG29-21-752
Project Title: It- Teatru tal- Miskin
Amount awarded: €5,804
The project consists of the research and development of an original new musical in Maltese with the working title “It- Teatru tal- Miskin” - a Maltese queer coming of age story inspired by different acts of intolerance from our history. The project will explore and inform the musical’s potential to enrich its social relevance and artistic excellence by collaborating with LGBTQ+ activist groups, young people, and expert theatre makers. The project will develop and explore new ways of approaching a new piece of Maltese theatre. This will be achieved through development sessions and brainstorming workshops with artists, mentors and communities, culminating in a week-long intensive R&D in year 2022.
Applicant: Dance Beyond Borders
Reference number: PSG60-21-810
Project Title: Refugee Week Malta 2022
Amount awarded: €20,000
The project consists of a week-long festival starting on World Refugee Day - June 20th - until June 26th. Refugee Week Malta will be built on three action pillars; Create, Cultivate and Connect that involve an interdisciplinary programme of arts and cultural events alongside artistic activism and a social media campaign. The events will occur in different spaces across the island and range in content from performances, film screenings, public talks to participatory workshops. This pursuit intends to cultivate awareness through artistic activism practice, create cultural spaces that promote allyship with people seeking sanctuary while strengthening relationships amongst all individuals working within the field. Dance Beyond Borders envisions launching this project for the first time in Malta to develop a locally based festival running in parallel to the international celebrations of Refugee Week, further putting Malta on the map as an EU state that actively promotes integration through innovative artistic activist approaches for a more unified community.
Applicant: Francesca Grima
Reference number: PSG21-21-713
Project Title: "Butterfly in the Inkwell"
Amount awarded: €10,000
The project is an artistic collaboration with Maltese flamenco dancer Francesca Grima, Chilean performance artist Bernardita Croxatto, Spanish live-painting artist and art video creator Patricio Hidalgo Moran, and Maltese/Serbian art director, composer and musician Andrej Vujicic. The project’s outcome is the creation of three art videos filmed between Malta and Spain by renowned filmmaker Felix Vazquez, investigating innovative approaches to traditional art forms, jointly tapping into the sea of creativity that remains unexplored in the cultural ‘inkwell’ - a new delineation of the feminine principle in dance, a re-contextualised artistic inquiry questioning imposed art form structures that require re-examination.
Applicant: Take 2
Reference number: PSG52-21-799
Project Title: CASTILLO
Amount awarded: €12,000
Take Two intends to embark on its theatrical debut by adapting a work by one of Malta’s most iconic and gifted writers. Clare Azzopardi’s ground-breaking novel ‘CASTILLO’ tells the story of Amanda, a young woman digging into the past of her mother, Emma, who abandoned her in early childhood. Upon meeting for the first time, after 25 years, her mother confesses to two ruthless murders, that of Tommy and the fictional detective: Castillo. Castillo rises the ranks from police inspector to Superintendent in a series of novels but to Emma, Castillo is very real and more importantly, she believes he is the reason behind her sister’s (and Amanda’s aunt) assassination in the 80s. Harbouring vengeance and justice, Amanda and Emma strive to uncover the mystery behind Cathy’s death. The theatre adaptation of Castillo will blend the genres of musical and drama throughout the month of February 2022 at Spazju Kreattiv.
Applicant: Francesca Balzan
Reference number: PSG50-21-797
Project Title: Disrupt & Disturb: Shaking off the dust
Amount awarded: €18,000
The project consists of a series of collaborative Art Research Labs conducted fortnightly over the space of a year leading to an exhibition at MUZA in Spring 2023. This outward looking project taps into our national heritage. Paper and book artist Glen Calleja and artist Francesca Balzan will systematically analyse their materials and techniques, confront them, experiment, and finally resolve them into an innovative body of work that takes off from each of their very individual and very different practices. The subject or theme will be the reserve collection of MUZA. It is envisaged that the 2 collaborators will study the art works in the reserve collection of MUZA. The objective will be to use them as starting off points for new art works that they will create using the techniques that they would have developed during the Art Research labs. This will culminate in an exhibition at MUZA in Spring 2023 for the public to see. This is a confrontation, a reaction but also a disruption and a disturbance to the normal mode of museum display. This new language will be used to create new art works that dialogue, react and refer to select works from the reserve collection at MUZA.
Applicant: Nigel Baldacchino
Reference number: PSG55-21-804
Project Title: Those Eyes, These Eyes, They Fade - Contemporary Photography Exhibition
Amount awarded: €15,000
The project consists of a contemporary photography exhibition curated by Anne Immelé [FR], Ph.D, co-founder of the Mulhouse Photography Biennial, titled 'Those Eyes, These Eyes, They Fade'. The exhibition features local artist Nigel Baldacchino who conceived the basic conceptual framework for the project, showing his work together with renowned artists such as Awoiska Van Der Molen [NE], Geert Goiris [BE], Bénédicte Blondeau [BE] at Valletta Contemporary.
Applicant: Rochelle Gatt
Reference number: PSG38-21-778
Project Title: Horizontal vs Vertical: Cheek to cheek; Head to Toe
Amount awarded: €10,000
This project aims to devise and create a theatrical performance, as well as collaborate and nourish the artistic dialogue between the creating professionals (local and international) and the audience. The dialogue will be moderated and led by the Feedback tool of Dasarts. The project encompasses a research that seeks to understand how the artistic process can be a feedback mechanism. When discussing artworks outside of a safe environment, the tendency is to personally interpret what we would have done instead of the artist himself. Therefore, this project aims to achieve a situation where we can freely discuss art works without insulting the people around us. The scope is to postpone harsh criticism whilst allowing the feedbacker to enter somebody else’s work in a graceful manner. During the project dissemination archiving and reflections are necessary for the generation of the creative process. The archiving will subsequently be presented in two formats - a reflective journal and a video documentation.
Applicant: Salt 'N' Pepper Project
Reference number: PSG67-21-819
Project Title: Salt ‘N’ Pepper: The Comic for Agricultural Learning
Amount awarded: €8,500
This project aims to develop 30 comic strips revolving around food production. The target audience is 10 to 13-year-olds who are curious about how food is produced. The comic strips will be disseminated online as well as offline in the form of a collective omnibus. Comics are a growing medium in art, even locally. The Malta Comic Con, which has been taking place since 2009, has seen an increase in number of attendees and scale. Similarly, there are a few examples online of comics used to convey sustainability messages such as ‘Angry Earth’ and ‘The Planet and the 17 Goals’. The comic will tackle how agricultural products (crops, animals, fish and processed food) are produced and the processes involved until the food is ready for consumption. The comic will also delve into problems that arise throughout the supply chain. All content will be designed appropriately for the target audience to understand.
Applicant: MICHEL ANGELO MUSCAT
Reference number: PSG57-21-807
Project Title: Song Cycle - Tama
Amount awarded: €12,000
The project is based on the true story of Tenor Michel Angelo Muscat who was born in Valletta in 2000 and was brought up in difficult situations. The court had eventually decided that Michel Angelo should be taken care of by the authorities. As a result, he was first transferred to the Ursoline Sisters Creshe and subsequently fostered in a Maltese family who urged him to start singing lessons. At the age of eight, he started his very first singing lessons. His foster family later decided to start the adoption procedure which was successful. They have together moved from Malta to Gozo to offer Michel Angelo a new life. Today, the beneficiary is invited to perform internationally. The project will be a collection of ten songs written by Leanne Ellul and composed by Dr John Galea. The ten songs will be recorded in an album and launched in a drama-vocal event. The proceeds of both the event and the sale of albums will go to the Children’s Dreams fund which aids children who are on care order.
Applicant: 12th May Band and Social Club
Reference number: PSG59-21-809
Project Title: Reviving Our Music Heritage
Amount awarded: €14,196
This project draws its inspiration from the important finding of ‘In Sepulchrum 1801’ by composer Francesco Azzopardi (1748-1809). The beneficiary intends to launch a children’s publication about antiphones written in the Maltese language. The publication will be written by Andrew Borg and illustrated by Nicole Diacono. The concept behind this publication is to create a contemporary story for children with important words in relation to the liturgical feasts embedded in the story. It will also serve as a platform for children to understand and appreciate our heritage. Finally, there will be a concert which will include some music snippets from the actual concert adapted for children.
Applicant: Julia Marta
Reference number: PSG18-21-701
Project Title: Valletta-Varsavja-Vjenna: Bringing together three musical cultures
Amount awarded: €7,000
The project brings together Malta based Polish pianist Julia Miller, Polish based Apertus String Quartet and Maltese composer Karl Fiorini, to create an original musical performance ranging through three different eras - from the classical to the contemporary - within three different musical cultures. The project includes a Malta premiere of Polish romantic composer Moniuszko's String Quartet no.1 in D-Minor and world premiere of Piano Quintet by Maltese contemporary composer Karl Fiorini. The performance will open with Mozart's one of only two minor piano concertos, Piano Concerto in D-Minor, arranged for a piano quintet - in itself a Malta premiere. This project is part of a three-city tour that will take the same programme to be performed in Vienna and in Warsaw.
Application Deadline: 23rd June 2021
Applicant: Selina Maria Scerri
Reference number: PSG71-21-513
Project Title: Tomorrow’s blossoms
Amount awarded: €17,876
Tomorrow’s Blossoms is an AI art project whose goal is to create an immersive exhibition in a space by projecting data dramatization, as developed through a year-long project. The project aims to extract the behaviour of natural anthropogenic processes and human creative behaviour by collecting data from the internet and combining it with a set of analogue/digital/paintings. These curated datasets will be input into a learning algorithm designed specifically for the project by Dr Angelo Dalli, producing new datasets. The results are bound to fascinate the viewers through their novelty as well as create a taste for further AI developments. The results will be exhibited and projected at 111 Art Gallery.
Applicant: Albert Bell
Reference number: PSG66-21-506
Project Title: Albert Bell's Sacro Sanctus - The Sword of Fierbois
Amount awarded: €26,764
This project entails the composition, recording, mixing, mastering, release, distribution and promotion of a historical concept based full-length album. The album will be released and distributed worldwide in CD and digital format on the Italian independent record label Metal on Metal Records. The album is also being prospected to be released in limited and exclusive DLP vinyl format and promoted/marketed through diverse media including lyric and concept/performance-based music videos.
Applicant: Matthew Schembri
Reference number: PSG27-21-373
Project Title: Ħassartek
Amount awarded: €11,086
Ħassartek is a project that aims to partially delete the script of “Stessi”, the applicant’s debut novel (published in 2018) to reveal a different text from the original manuscript. Through this process of partial deletion a literary text that is simultaneously both new and not new will be created. This project experiments with the technique of partial deletion as a form of rebellion and protest towards the authority, stasis and lack of control that a published work entails. The deleted text will be published and exhibited as part of an artistic installation at Studio Solipsis.
Applicant: Margerita Pulé
Reference number: PSG01-21-229
Project Title: The Ordinary Lives of Women
Amount awarded: €25,000
The Ordinary Lives of Women is an exploration and acknowledgement, in exhibition form, of the value of everyday women, and women’s contribution to humanity. The exhibition is co-curated by Elise Billiard Pisani and Margerita Pulè, and designed by Noura Abdelhafidh. An art-film programme is curated by Nicole Bearman, and the catalogue is edited by Ann Dingli. The Ordinary Lives of Women combines important and statement-making existing work, alongside new work created specifically for the show. It combines installation, performance, and multi-disciplinary work, as well as a small reading / reference library, and shows international and local artists alongside each other.
Applicant: Antje Liemann
Reference number: PSG53-21-482
Project Title: Such Stuff as Worlds are Made On
Amount awarded: €25,000
Such Things as Worlds are Made On is a co-curated project-exhibition in collaboration with a number of local and international artists. Through installation, sound, video, and virtual reality pieces, the project reflects on the effects of environmental emergencies, as well as the limits of human knowledge of our planet and the solar system, and to engage with exploratory practices marginalised by scientific knowledge. The exhibition will shift perspectives towards non-privileged humans, nonhumans, biomes and Martian life forms in order to reflect on the near-future of space colonisation and to explore imaginings of past landings on earth by beings that have pushed human imagination. Over the course of the exhibition, additional workshops and events such as a dreaming session, an astronomy workshop and film-screenings will allow audiences to engage further with the subject, and with works that look towards world-building and towards practices marginalised by positivist scientific knowledge as a possible solution for our current ecological crises.
Applicant: Katel Delia
Reference number: PSG35-21-407
Project title: MALTA – TUNIS – MARSEILLE
Amount awarded: €9,274
Malta-Tunis-Marseille exhibition is based on a true story. It explores a Maltese family’s complex journey of migration that started one century ago, in its search for a better life. It is about looking for a space to inhabit that feels like home, and being pushed out again because of external issues. As it echoes the life-story of many migrants, the exhibition asks: Where can you find a shelter when your native country does not accept your return? Malta-Tunis-Marseille cuts across the Mediterranean Sea and its restless roads of migration. It is an immersive exhibition, and is made of photographs, videos, sound installations and archival documents from the archives.
Applicant: Clint Calleja
Reference number: PSG67-21-507
Project title: Anamnesis
Amount awarded: €11,213
Anamnesis is a solo exhibition by Clint Calleja and curated by Kenneth Cassar. It will be composed of a number of paintings, sculptures, photography and installations dealing with the theme of trauma and memory. The artworks will be all autobiographical, inspired and/or describing recollections of various events throughout the artist’s life that remained imprinted in his memory. Most of these imprints are of a traumatic nature, which are important ingredients that shaped the applicant as a person and as an artist.
Applicant: Aidan Celeste
Reference number: PSG73-21-515
Project title: hold on to the air in your pockets
Amount awarded: €11,776
This project builds upon work the artists have engaged with independently across the Grand Harbour. It brings together the work of Johannes Buch and Aidan Celeste for a residency at MUŻA. They will focus on using their skills in digital publication to revisit and curate a narrative with experts from heritage, maritime, and the arts. This collaboration will be used to develop a new site-specific intervention for our host, MUŻA, and mediate its design by hosting a reading room. This room, entitled a Residency Space by MUŻA, will be used to host the area’s immediate communities under the guise of an exhibition.
Applicant: Cynthia Bonnici
Reference number: PSG33-21-402
Project title: Alessia’s Project
Amount awarded: €24,670
As a teenage pianist with autism, Alessia engages with music in a distinctive way, expressing through it a vast world of lived experiences that she is unable to express verbally. Through the making of a short film (which will revolve around Alessia’s recording of Ilia Chkolnik’s Piano Concerto No. 1), this project will attempt to communicate Alessia’s unique relationship with music, and celebrate her multiple abilities while respectfully acknowledging her challenges.
Applicant: Joseph Smith
Reference number: PSG38-21-420
Project title: Spaces in Suspension
Amount awarded: €9,841
Spaces in Suspension seeks to document a space that is about to be demolished and erased from the landscape and our collective memory, namely the Verdala Hotel in Rabat. Since ceasing operation in 1997, the space has become a hospice for the objects that were left behind, and these objects have become part of a performance – the act of waiting for demolition. The space will be documented photographically and audio-visually through an exhibition and a subsequent publication, as well as through workshops with students and artists with the possible participation of past employees of the hotel.
Submitting ...
Saving ...
Any applications related to this entity, will also be automatically deleted.
