Five clusters to benefit from new Creative Industries Platform

Five platforms in the cultural and creative sectors will benefit from the new Creative Industries Platform, a fund which supports the set-up of clusters for creative entrepreneurs.

The first awardees of this programme have been announced and will represent a range of sectors, including video games, literature & publishing, film, performing arts and contemporary visual arts.

The Creative Industries Platform managed by Arts Council Malta will provide an investment of €700,000 to support the setting up and running of sector-specific support frameworks within which creative entrepreneurs can work and network. Through this programme, platforms will provide targeted assistance to help niche sectors grow in a sustainable manner.

Through the programme, the Malta Video Game Studio Association will create a platform for local studios and foreign game development companies established in Malta. The platform will establish a brand to represent video games developed in Malta and run a number of programmes and workshops designed to grow the Maltese game development industry into a commercially successful sector.

HELA will be a new platform for literature and publishing and will act as an information desk and contact point for the sector. It will also provide continuous professional devel- opment for authors and publishers and will promote residencies and organise events relevant to the sector in Malta and abroad.

The Maltese film industry will also develop its own platform through the setting up of the Valletta Film Lab by the Film Grain Foundation. The lab will organise workshops to help participating companies and individuals prepare projects for the international market. The Valletta Film Lab will also participate in international film markets to promote local productions and organise a co-production market in Malta.

#EngageCreatives is a performing and visual arts platform that will offer accelerator services to start-ups in these areas. The platform will focus on Maltese artists who require assistance in bringing about their creative potential through tailored support in open workshops and programmes that provide the tools required to forge their own career.

I AM is a collaboration of contemporary art galleries headed by IAM, with the aim of encouraging entrepreneurship and start-ups in the visual arts sector through networking, capacity building and art market development. The platform will also focus on the sector’s export development through participation in art fairs.

Through the programme, each of these five sector-specific platforms will receive up to €50,000 annually for three years. The five projects were selected from a total of 12 applications received.

“This is the first time that such a programme has been set up,” said Arts Council Malta executive chair Albert Marshall. “The fund has already resulted in stronger creative industry-led organisation with groups of artists, organisations and entrepreneurs coming together to apply for the fund. The applicants have collectively brought on board 36 partners who will be contributing to the development of the platforms. The plat- forms forecast servicing 100 artists and creative enterprises in the sector during the first year and growing to over 600 over three years.”

“The programme builds upon Arts Council Malta’s Create2020 strategy on business development and the Council’s goal of supporting creative practitioners to turn their artistic ideas into sustainable economic activities that can reach new markets locally and internationally,” said Toni Attard, Arts Council Malta’s director of strategy.