Creative Kuala Lumpur (Creative KL) Grants Programme

Deadline: 26-Jun-23

Think City, with the support of the Ministry of Finance, has launched the Creative KL Grants Programme to achieve the vision and address the urban challenges present within Downtown Kuala Lumpur.

The Creative Kuala Lumpur (Creative KL) Grants Programme aims to revitalise the historical city centre towards the creation of a creative, liveable, vibrant, and thriving hub by offering opportunities to perform creative district revitalisation and economic development work while, strengthening social, and environmental resilience within Downtown Kuala Lumpur.

It hopes to draw talent and businesses to Downtown Kuala Lumpur; and encourage creation of an environment that appeals to them to live, work, eat and play. Quality of place attributes are integral to attracting and keeping talent, and a deep pool of diverse talent will be a key selling point for bringing new investment to the creative district.

Objectives

The programme objectives are to:
- Preserve and celebrate diversity of cultural assets in Downtown Kuala Lumpur, whilst strengthening its sense of place and identity;
- Optimise underutilised and undervalued tangible and intangible cultural heritage assets and enhance the appeal of Downtown Kuala Lumpur;
- Strengthen community empowerment and development through capacity building and community programmes;
- Catalyse the creation of a network of cultural and creative nodes through new businesses that will drive creative and culture-based economy; and
- Encourage more knowledge sharing, private-public partnership, spurring multistakeholder interest and commitment towards more sustainable urban regeneration.

Focus Area

The programme prioritises projects within 250m radius surrounding the Dataran Merdeka Area, Masjid Jamek LRT Station, Jalan Hang Lekiu Area and Pasar Seni Transit Hub. Nevertheless, applicants are welcome to propose projects beyond these mentioned areas.

Themes and Support

Space Rejuvenation
- To invigorate and bring new life to dilapidated/abandoned buildings and spaces around Downtown Kuala Lumpur by reviving, refurbishing, and repurposing them to preserve urban heritage, create positive and healthy spaces, enhance liveability and visitor appeal.
  - Technical support – Studies, technical assistance, assessment and other advisory services required to achieve:
    - Building restoration including façade treatment, roofscape repairs or enhancements, interior fit-outs,
    - Public spaces improvement including pocket parks, extending green cover, enhancing the space around your building for public recreation, amongst others.
  - Capacity building support- The grant covers efforts to enhance skills, knowledge, and competencies of local communities towards fulfilling the project objective.
  - Project implementation – Supporting the construction or refurbishment of the project.
    - Building restoration including façade treatment, roofscape repairs or enhancements, interior fit-outs,
    - Public spaces improvement including pocket parks, extending green cover, enhancing the space around your building for public recreation, amongst others.
Business Seeding And/Or Expansion
- To repopulate the city and contribute to the socioeconomic development of the city by assisting business owners with starting new business or relocating and expanding their existing business in Downtown Kuala Lumpur.
  - New businesses – The start of a new business within the area, this may include product production, provision of services or technological integrations to support the creative and cultural ecosystem.
  - Business expansion – The expansion of an existing business to strengthen its presence within the area.
Creative Content And/Or Activation
- To support and strengthen the creative ecosystem through the creation of opportunities for artisans, cultural workers, and creative practitioners to deliver high quality content and programmes in Downtown Kuala Lumpur.
  - Content creation – Collating, compiling, publishing, and interpreting information that can be shared with the public to enhance visitor experience and widen the visibility of both tangible and intangible content.
  - Tangible content – for e.g., events, physical or digital publications, programmes
  - Intangible content – for e.g., research, methodologies
  - Activation – Curating, coordinating, and producing events, festivals, programmes to celebrate the diversity of stories, history, and cultural assets; and enriching the visitor experience.
Community Development
- To strengthen resilience, encourage participation via programmes that are designed for local communities.
  - Capacity building – Programmes, activities, workshops, masterclasses, courses, or certification to facilitate the transfer of knowledge or skills of a particular subject to the wider community.
  - Community programmes – Community led programmes or activities to increase community involvement, inclusivity, and resilience within Downtown Kuala Lumpur.
Research And/Or Publication
- To build a creative and cultural district that is wellsupported by research, that will in turn enhance the visibility of the district, enhance visitor experience, and create opportunities for the community to thrive.
  - Research and analysis – Fund researchers to conduct thorough analysis to identify needs and challenges of the ecosystem and track impact.
  - Publication – Collating, compiling and interpreting information that will go into publishing, including cultural mapping, guidelines, documentation, and printing of collaterals.

Funding Information

The Creative KL Grants Programme supports direct expenses for you to implement your proposed project that may range from RM50,000 to RM300,000 per application.

What does the Creative KL Grants Programme support?

It is important to note that the programme:
- prioritises projects that have a 1:1 co-investment;
- prioritises projects with high impact potential;
- supports projects that are inclusive to all communities, bring new users to the space, injects new creative content, diversifies usage of spaces; and
- priorities projects that can completed by end of 2023.

Eligibility Criteria

The grants programme is open to individuals, collectives, community-based organisations and non-governmental organisations with project ideas that can diversify the visitor experience, create culturally aligned local economic outcome and contribute to the rejuvenation efforts of Downtown Kuala Lumpur.
The lead applicant must assume full administrative responsibility as well as be actively involved in the whole process.
Organisations registered under Registrar of Companies, Registrar of Societies and Registrar of Businesses are welcome to apply.

Ineligibility Criteria

Your application will not be supported if you:
- Are an individual/ collective/ organisation:
  - Have been declared bankrupt or undergoing bankruptcy proceedings;
  - Currently facing an action, claim, process, or investigation against the applicant;
  - Being charged and/or convicted in a criminal process or names as accused in a pending court case process;
  - That have pending/ outstanding evaluation reports on the use of previous funding programme from Think City; and
  - If there are any adverse findings on those applying during the due diligence process.
- Are proposing a project that:
  - Has commenced prior to the date of grant notification;
  - Where the project background, issues, objectives, and outputs are not clearly defined;
  - Is not compliant with applicable laws and ordinances;
  - Denigrate or debase a person, group, or class of individuals based on race or religion, or serve to create conflict or misunderstanding in the multicultural and multireligious society;
  - Threaten the nation’s security or stability; and
  - Is not intended for wider public consumption.

For more information, visit Think City.