Strengthening the Creative Industries across Pakistan

The British Council and DEMO have announced the opening of applications for the Creative Communities Empowerment programmes – DICE Creative Hubs. Under the British Council’s Developing Inclusive and Creative Economies (DICE) programme, this empowerment programmes will support and curate eight meaningful activities enriched with powerful industry specific content. Enabling like-minded people to come together to dream, share, imagine, innovate and explore ideas.

A grant of PKR 1,070,000 each will be given to eight creative organisations in the following categories: Fine Arts and Handicrafts, Software Development, Music and Performing Arts, Literature, Film-making, Architecture – Interior design and Industrial design, Fashion and Textile and lastly Graphic Design. DEMO together with the selected organisations, will be co-designing creative hub activities in the form of meet-ups, workshops, dialogues, online marketplaces, performances, showcasing, screening events and more to strengthen the sustainability of their creative practices in the ecosystem.

Talha Chishti, Head of Programmes at British Council Pakistan added: “DICE Creative Hubs is a wonderful opportunity for the Pakistani creative industry to collaborate and work together on the pressing issues of their communities and create a meaningful impact for the community members”

The programme is open for small organisations or artists collectively working in the creative industry, including but not limited to, art galleries, design studios, makerspaces, co-working spaces, fab labs, or artists–run spaces are welcome to apply. The applicants eligible should have been operating for at least 1-5 years with revenue less than PKR 5 Million per annum.

Muhammad Bin Masood, CEO at DEMO, while speaking at the virtual launch commented: “Creative hubs are not just ingenious solutions providers, they are institutions that foster and breed creativity towards a prosperous creative economy by recognizing potential and igniting growth through innovation.”

The last date to apply is 11 February 2021. The eight selected grant recipients will be executing the DICE Creative hub activities by the end of March 2021. To find more about the program, visit: www.demo.org.pk/creativehubs