Arts Council Malta (ACM) is the national agency for development and investment in the cultural and creative sectors. Its principal task is to fund, support and promote Malta's Cultural and Creative sectors

The Council manages a funding portfolio for the cultural and creative sectors through its national funding programmes. In 2015, the Council published Strategy2020, its five-year national strategy for the arts based on five strategic focal points, which include internationalisation and business development as well as research, education and training, diversity and communities. Arts Council Malta’s goals are: to nurture creative potential and support its development into professional activity; to invest in artistic excellence; to connect Malta to the international artistic community; to provide more opportunities for people to engage in creativity; and to build the capacity of Public Cultural Organisations under its remit, including the national theatres, the national dance company and the contemporary creative space.

Strategy2020 was created following a consultation process with a number of stakeholders from the cultural and creative sectors. More than 300 artists, creative practitioners and other stakeholders discussed their vision, ambitions and dreams for Malta’s cultural and creative sectors for the five years to come. This process fed directly into the strategy.

Following the launch of Arts Council Malta’s Strategy2020, Arts Council Malta is implementing the 70 deliverables outlined in the five-year programme for the cultural and creative sectors.

In the past few years, the Council has gone from a small entity to a restructured and much larger agency which is actively carving out its path as a cultural leader for the sector. The Council has also played a central role in events such as the Seventh World Summit on Arts and Culture held in Valletta in 2016, the Cultural Export Programme of the Maltese Presidency of the Council of the European Union held in 2017 and Malta’s capital city Valletta as the European Capital of Culture in 2018.

As part of its strategic developmental role, the Council has also partnered up with 11 artistic organisations and festivals to drive strategic three-year partnerships called Cultural Partnership Agreements; these include the Valletta Film Festival, The Mediterranean Literature Festival and Blitz, an artist-run contemporary art space. 

Our legal framework

On 12 May 2015, the Maltese Parliament approved a new legal structure for ACM by means of Act 15 of 2015, which denotes ACM’s duty to develop and promote Malta’s cultural and creative sectors nationally and internationally via all forms of creative expression, as well as to increase public access to arts and culture.

Arts Council Malta’s objectives are to:

1. Advocate and be a strategic leader and catalyst for Malta’s cultural and creative sectors by implementing strategies that focus on:

a. Knowledge-based cultural and creative development,

b. Education and training,

c. Intelligence and data building,

d. Business development, funding and investment,

e. Diversity and communities, and

f. Internationalisation.

2. Promote innovation in the cultural and creative sectors and stimulate a creative ecosystem for the generation of contemporary creative content.

3. Initiate, develop and promote strategies, programmes and initiatives to enhance sectoral performance.

4. Act as a broker for the cultural and creative sectors and a bridge with other sectors.

5. Promote intellectual property in the cultural and creative sectors.

6. Ensure the development of a sustainable creative economy.

7. Enable and promote the sustainable development of creative individuals and organisations.

8. Facilitate participation in and access to cultural and creative activity.

9. Foster active and participatory citizenship in culture and promote cultural inclusion, equality, diversity and the freedom of creative expression.

10. Increase the understanding, appreciation, enjoyment and expression of culture.

11. Safeguard the dynamic development of those cultural characteristics, including intellectual, linguistic, traditional and folkloric, that identify the Maltese people.

Read the Act here.

The Board

Executive Chairman: Albert Marshall

Members:

  • Mr Dario Vella

  •  

    Ms Jackie Mercieca

  •  

    Mr Joseph Buttigieg

  •  

    Ms Justin Attard

  •  

    Dr Ilona Schembri

  •  

    Ms Marika Sammut Dimech

  •  

    Ms Roselyn Kitcher

  •  

    Ms Silvana Civelli