Here are the nine distinguished jury members to select participants for the Playful Arts Accelerator 2026! The call for submissions to the accelerator closes 31 May.

The Playful Arts Accelerator is a platform where brave and innovative projects with high artistic ambitions can flourish in an exciting ecosystem, creating and collaborating, playing, connecting, and exchanging knowledge. Basically, creating playable art in a vibrant community of makers and thinkers.

Distinguished jury members

To select what projects to participate in the Playful Arts Accelerator 2026, is a jury of nine people with extensive experience in arts and games:

Idun Isdrake

Idun Isdrake is a game designer and filmmaker with 20+ years of industry experience, as well as a diverse research portfolio. Her work includes building game innovation labs in AAA and independently, as well as building new game interfaces, and transmedia ecosystems. Currently Isdrake is developing a new game about ecocide.

Josephine Rydberg

Josephine Rydberg is an academic and a designer, with degrees in film and theatre from several Swedish and international universities. Her extensive experience also includes crossmedia development, and several innovative projects mixing storytelling and new technology. Rydberg is also an active LARPer since the early 90’s.

Outi Kaarina Laiti

Dr. Outi Kaarina Laiti is a Sámi game researcher and designer from the University of Helsinki. Her expertise is rooted in Sámi‑led and Indigenous‑informed game design, often developed in collaboration with non‑Indigenous creators. Dr. Laiti is also the curator of the exhibition Digital Natives? Sámi Games Now!, currently on display at the Siida Sámi Museum in Inari, Finland.

Jakob Skote

Jakob Skote is an artist and technologist with a background in architecture. He’s the co-founder of the XR studio Untold Garden and the XR art platform Meadow. His work explores how technology shapes human relations, through art, strategy, and tools that lower barriers to digital creativity.

Maj Hasager

Maj Hasager is Rector of Malmö Art Academy. Maj Hasager is also a Danish artist based in Copenhagen. She studied photography and fine arts in Denmark, Sweden, and the UK, earning an MFA from Malmö Art Academy. Hasager’s artistic approach is research and dialogically based, and she works predominantly with text, sound, video, and photography.

Mira Dorthé

Mira Dorthé is the co-founder of independent award winning game studio Other Tales Interactive that has released story driven games for the past ten years.

Vic Bassey

Vic Bassey is a driven advocate of the gaming community who thrives on the fringes. He specializes in games publishing and business development but is equally passionate about boosting and supporting the development of sustainable gaming ecosystems. He is an advisor to Griffin Gaming Partners and Behold Ventures as well as the founder and editor of GamesIndustryAfrica.com.

Sabine Harrer

Dr. Sabine Harrer is a senior lecturer at the Game Design Department, Uppsala University. Previously, they worked at the Centre of Excellence in Game Culture Studies, University of Tampere, and have taught games and culture at BTK Berlin, ITU Copenhagen, and University Vienna.

Caroline B Le Bongoat

Caroline B Le Bongoat is a business developer with responsibility for Cultural and Creative Industries, External environment and Business, at the City of Malmö.

Apply to the accelerator

The Playful Arts Accelerator is hosted by the Swedish Games Institute, and is open to artists and creatives from diverse fields. The accelerator is a unique three month program in Malmö, which includes:

• Talks and workshops focusing on artistic components, giving projects a chance to develop into truly unique experiences
• A grant of 50.000 SEK
• Tailored mentoring, and access to the wider games and arts scene in Skåne
• Joint exhibition for participating projects at STPLN in Malmö

The accelerator is open for submissions until Sunday 31 May. The accelerator program kicks off on Tuesday 1 September. Read more and apply for the accelerator here.

The Swedish Games Institute is a platform where the Swedish games ecosystem actors collaborate to strengthen the games industry nationally through coordination, knowledge sharing, and support structures, as well as by promoting games as an art and cultural form. Find out more at dataspelsinstitutet.se.