The Arts Council’s role is to advocate for and
support the development of a diverse and varied arts-festival ecology, and to
provide a suite of supports that: increase opportunities for public engagement,
provide participation in the arts, develop the work of an artist/artform,
encourage models of best practice, establish festivals of
national/international significance, provide quality arts experiences for
audiences, and foster programmes engaged with, and relevant to, local
communities.
This is achieved in our role as the agency for leading the development
of arts in Ireland through the provision of initiatives and supports for
festivals and as the national agency for arts funding; providing a number of financial supports to various arts festival
models.
Funding
Through its Strategic Funding, the Arts Council
supports the essential infrastructure required to sustain and develop festival
practice in Ireland and to support festivals to develop artform and artist
development and broaden public access to the arts. This spans a broad range of
artform practice areas.
The Council’s Commissions Scheme and Arts Grant
Funding supports the development of festival programmes and opportunities to
strengthen producing and commissioning capacity. In this regard the Arts
Council values not only the development of single-artform practice but also the
approach of multidisciplinary and inter-disciplinary arts in festivals.
Through its Open Call programme the Arts Council supports large,
ambitious, new projects providing an environment for creative risk-taking in a
festival context. The Capacity Building Scheme supports the professional and
strategic development of festival organisations. The Agility Award (from late
2023) supports the professional development of festival producers, curators and
festival-makers through mentoring programmes and training. Through its Festival
Investment Scheme, the Arts Council supports small/mid-scale festival
programmes which deliver quality arts experiences to the public, play a key
role in the transmission of arts practice, and contribute to place making in
local communities.
A full list of schemes where festivals can apply as
the lead applicant is published here.
Strategic Funding
Strategic Funding supports organisations which are
critical to, and/or, central to the national arts infrastructure. These
organisations sustain the development of festival practice in Ireland, provide
opportunities for artform/artist development and provide a range of pathways
for the public to engage in the arts. Organisations must be formally
constituted as a CLG, DAC or a statutory body to be supported under this
programme.
Multidisciplinary festivals funded
through this programme for 2023 include:
Single artform festivals funded
through this programme for 2023 include:
Arts Grant Funding
Arts Grant Funding provides a fixed period of
support to organisations/individuals who generate high quality programmes for
the public to engage with the arts, facilities that support the work of artists
and/or the arts sector. In the context of festivals; mid-scale/large festival
programmes, festivals involved in the creation or development of art projects,
festivals addressing deficits in the festival ecology are supported.
Multidisciplinary/Interdisciplinary
projects or festivals funded through this programme for 2023 include:
Single artform festivals funded
through this programme for 2023 include:
Festivals Investment Scheme
The Festivals Investment Scheme provides non-recurring support for small/mid-scale
festivals or new festival programmes to deliver quality and imaginative arts
experiences for audiences, to contribute to the development of artform
practices and to increase opportunities for public engagement. In this regard,
the Arts Council acknowledges the valuable contribution made by voluntary
committees in developing and sustaining festivals.
A full breakdown of festivals funded under the
Festival Investment Programme can be found in the ‘Who we funded’ link here.
Commissions
The purpose the Commissions Award is to enable the
commissioning of new work from freelance artists. In a festivals context
priority is given to: the development of street arts and spectacle artists to
test and present work to audiences, opportunities for artists to co-author new
work in collaboration with the public, enable artists from diverse backgrounds
to create new ambitious work for festival audiences.
Open Call
The Open Call supports collaborative
ground-breaking public-facing projects of ambition, impact and scale that
encourage discourse, provocation or response to place and identity as part of
contemporary Ireland.
Open Call is a programme for artists and arts organisations to develop and
shift their practice and profile work for the public on a national scale,
creating high-profile arts central to people’s lives.
Capacity Building Support Scheme
The Capacity Building Support Scheme has been
developed to support arts organisations or arts consortia to gain skills and
expertise, to review and adapt business models and invest in strategic
development in the medium to long term. It supports activities that will assist
in building capacity (such as strategic planning, training, digital
investment), in developing inclusivity, and/or in growing peer support and
collaborations. It does not support arts activities or arts programmes.
Notably, the Capacity Building Support scheme has
allowed for the creation of Festival consortia pilot initiatives. Below is a
list of such festival networks that support festivals in the development of artistic
programmes, pool/consolidate resources and/or invest in shared training and
professional development.
West Cork Arts Festival Consortia
The West Cork Arts Festivals Cooperative is a group of eleven festivals
that take place across the towns, villages, and islands of the region.
Established in 2021, this organisation aims to increase awareness of each
festival nationally and internationally, to create a regional network for the
exchange of experience and expertise, and to foster collaboration and
cooperation that will build capacity to reach new and diverse communities and
audiences. Member Festivals include:
Irish Early Music Network
The Irish Early Music Network supports knowledge
sharing amongst its members, Initiatives include: creating a small bank of
audio, video and streaming equipment for concert and workshop broadcasts by
member organisations, facilitating and creating connections across Europe via
membership in the European Early Music Network, EEEmerging (Emerging European Ensembles)
and other international initiatives and organisations. Member Festivals
include:
Birr Festivals Consortia
The consortium of the Birr Festivals Collective was
formed in 2020 to imagine and to create possibilities for the future of Birr’s
festivals. Member Festivals include:
Other Funding Supports
Whilst the above schemes are central
to the Arts Council funding of festivals, other schemes are also available for
festivals to apply to; these include:
Architecture Project Award -
The award supports specific projects in the field of Architecture including: high-quality
initiatives that deliver a presentation to an audience.
- Culture Night Late - To be announced 14th March 2023
please check here
- Deis
Recording and Publication Scheme –
providing support for traditional arts projects, or projects involving
collaboration between the traditional arts and other artforms, that focus on
the recording or publication of work.
- Agility Award (Starting Round 2 2023) - The Agility Award aims to support individual professional
freelance artists and arts workers at any stage in their careers.