You must submit your application through the Arts Council’s Online Services system.

If your school/centre does not have an Online Services account, please register here.

Schools/centres can apply for a once-off, flat-rate grant of €4,000 (in total) to implement their plans over the two school years 2022–23 and 2023–24. Please see the Creative Schools guidelines for further information http://www.artscouncil.ie/Funds/Creative-Schools-Initiative/

All Department of Education recognised primary and post-primary schools and Youthreach centres that have not already participated in a previous round of Creative Schools are eligible to apply.

See also question regarding Creative Clusters: We are in a Creative Cluster, are we are eligible to apply to be a Creative School?

Yes. All Department of Education recognised primary and post-primary schools and Youthreach centres that have not already participated in a previous round of Creative Schools are eligible to apply. 

Schools/centres must register with the Arts Council’s Online Services system as a group or organisation (not as an individual) in order to access an application form and to submit your application. The full application guidelines are available here.

If your school/centre has already registered with the Arts Council’s Online Services, you do not need to register again. You should use your school/ centres ARN to apply.

If you are registering for the first time, please ensure your school/centre name is the same as the one used on your bank account.

Eligible schools/centres may apply to both Creative Schools and the Creative Clusters initiative for the 2022-23 school year. However, schools/centres cannot participate in both initiatives at the same time. This means schools/centres that apply successfully to both initiatives may accept an offer from either Creative Schools 2022 or Creative Clusters 2022. 

Schools/centres leading or participating in Creative Clusters that started in the school-year 2020-2021 are eligible to apply to Creative Schools 2022.

^{Creative Clusters is an initiative of the Department of Education, led by and in partnership with the twenty-one full-time Teacher Education Centres (Education Support Centres Ireland – ESCI) and funded through the Schools Excellence Fund}

Schools/ centres must register with the Arts Council as a group or organisation (rather than as an individual) before making the application. If your school/centre has already registered with the Arts Council’s Online Services, you do not need to register again, and you should use your ARN (reference number) to apply. If you are registering for the first time, please ensure your school/centre name is the same as the one used on your bank account.

Registration normally takes five working days. You can contact online services to find out the progress of your ARN registration at onlineservices@artscouncil.ie.

While waiting to be registered, applicants can familiarise themselves with the application guidelines available here.

An ARN is your schools ‘Artistic reference number’, which is your school’s file reference number in the Arts Council.  You will need this to access your Online Services account.

You can contact the Creative Schools team who will provide you with your ARN (reference number). Email creativeschools@artscouncil.ie

If you have been awarded Creative Schools already, you can refer to the correspondence you received from the Arts Council offering you the award, and this will contain your school’s ARN. 

On the login page for the Arts Council’s Online Services system, there is an option to select ‘Forgot my password’.  When you click this, the system will generate a new password for your school, and email it automatically to the email address that you have included in your Online Services account. 

No. You will only need to supply these details if you are awarded a grant.

On the login page for the Arts Council’s Online Services system, there is an option to select ‘Forgot my password’. When you click this, the system will generate a new password for your school, and email it automatically to the email address that you have included in your Online Services account. 

Please contact the Creative Schools team at creativeschools@artscouncil.ie who can give you your ARN.

The Creative Schools application form can only be downloaded through your Online Services account.

If your school/centre does not have an Online Services account, please register here.

No. You save a copy of the application form to your computer, and you fill it in off line. You are free to return to it at your own leisure. Once you and your colleagues are happy with your completed application form, you log back on to your school’s Online Services account in order to upload your form and to submit your application to the Arts Council.

No. All applications must be made through the Arts Council’s Online Services. Applications made in any other way (by post, fax or email) will not be accepted.

Contact creativeschools@artscouncil.ie directly, or:

Sarah O’Keeffe — sarah.okeeffe@artscouncil.ie / 087-3725752

Rebecca Lam — rebecca.lam@artscouncil.ie / 087-2143131

Natalie Byrne — natalie.byrne@artscouncil.ie / 087-278 6276

Anne Keenan— anne.keenan@artscouncil.ie / 087-709 1777

Yes, the guidelines and application form are available in both Irish and English through the Arts Council’s online services system. We welcome applications through Irish.

No, unfortunately not. If you are still in advance of the application deadline, you can correct your form on your computer off-line, and then log on to Online Services and submit a new application. We can withdraw the earlier application. 

We ask that you keep an open mind and not to set yourself plans for particular projects or events at the application stage. However, in your application form do identify your school’s development priorities and provide other information that is prompted by the questions in the application form. If your school/centre is selected to participate in the programme, you will be appointed a Creative Associate, who will support both you and the children and young people in your school to build your Creative Schools Plan together.

The application guidelines here provide information about Creative Schools and what to include in your application. 

Yes, there is substitution paid to cover the School Coordinator to attend Creative Schools training sessions.

Yes, we will try to pair you with an Irish speaking Creative Associate and all documentation we supply can be completed in Irish also.

This varies each year depending on the funding we receive, but to date, approximately 150-170 schools have joined the programme each year.

No, they are separate initiatives. They are both under the ‘Creative Youth’ pillar of the Creative Ireland programme.

No. Creative Schools encourages schools to seek and apply for other arts and education opportunities, and to build relationships with the arts and cultural sectors. The only other funded initiative you cannot run concurrently with Creative Schools is Creative Clusters.

Each school and Youthreach Centre is different, and Creative Schools has been included in the timetable in many different ways, from weekly sessions to short modules and once-off workshops. For example, Primary Schools have timetabled Creative Schools activity across the full range of the curriculum, from SPHE, Arts Education and Language, to Physical Education and Mathematics. There is a lot of opportunity to include creativity in many aspects of the curriculum in Post Primary schools and Youthreach Centres. Creative Schools activity can be very useful for cross-curricular collaboration, and it is also very relevant to key skills and wellbeing.  Assemblies and other existing forums can be very useful for sharing Creative Schools ideas and work, and to make the programme visible across your school/centre

No. This is your school’s decision to make. Creative Schools encourages schools to mobilise and involve their whole school community as far as possible. Many of our schools get the whole school involved while others focus in on a number of particular class groups.

No. Our team has an established panel of Creative Associates and you are then matched with one. This is chosen by geographical standing. However, your school/centre does choose the external professional artists and other creative practitioners who you might work with on projects and activities arising from your school’s Creative Schools Plan. Your Creative Associate can advise you and help your school/centre to make connections with artists, creative practitioners, cultural groups and organisations.

Yes, but not all the time. Often, a teacher or a visiting artist or creative practitioner may be leading Creative Schools activity. At various stages of the Creative School journey the Creative Associate might engage directly with students, and also with teachers, e.g. by facilitating an introductory creativity workshop. The Creative Associates works closely with the School Coordinator. They listen actively to what the students and school community are saying about creativity, and help reflect that back to them. Creative Associates can also advise and help in the planning of key activities and projects decided by the school and included in the Creative Schools Plan. 

During the pandemic, Creative Associates have continued to work directly with students. During the lockdown, they were able to work directly, but remotely with students. They have also engaged with outdoor group work when it has been safe to do so. Currently the Creative Associates can work in the schools and they follow the Government health and safety advice at all times.

Each school/centre works with their children and young people to develop a Creative Schools Plan unique to their own school. The activities and projects that they include in their plan are very wide ranging because they have been developed from the ground up in each school/centre. It is possible that students might want to run a competition for themselves, or participate in an existing competition, event or cultural programme, and include this as one of the activities in their Creative Schools Plan. 

Yes, we would like to know your school activities when there are no restrictions in place.

Sign up to the monthly Arts Council newsletter for future opportunities and arts related news; and occasionally check the Arts and Education Portal for arts and education news and examples of practice.  

You can find Creative Schools information on the Arts Council website