Arts Council’s Creative Places Programme – Ireland

Creative Places should be inclusive and diverse, and their programmes rooted in socially engaged arts practice and community-development principles. Successful applicants will build on existing cultural strengths and be led by community participation and ideas. In particular, they will look to involve people who are often excluded.

Priorities

The Arts Council has identified the following as strategic priorities for support through this award:

• Public engagement: e.g. the applicant can demonstrate that the proposed place includes a higher-than-average number of people often experiencing barriers to the arts: lack of cultural infrastructure, demographic profile with high numbers of older people, youth population and cultural diversity, etc.
• Socially engaged or collaborative arts practice: e.g. the principles of socially engaged or collaborative arts practice coupled with community-development principles are clearly understood and articulated and the application is informed by this expertise.
• Research, policy and sustainability: e.g. can demonstrate public consultation and engagement, align with local regeneration policies and plans, has clear research questions (if applicable), social-impact evaluation and measurement methods, models of local approaches to collaboration, new investment models for supporting the arts, and can create a sustainable future.
• Partnership: e.g. a consortium that can demonstrate a meaningful and long-term commitment by a local-authority arts office, community-development partners, local arts organisations already working in or near the place, and socially engaged arts expertise. At least five partners are recommended. For research projects the partnership should involve three partners.
• The level of cash and in-kind investment by the supporting partner(s). This must be a minimum of 30% of the overall costs for Strand 1 and 25% for Strand 2 and Strand 3.

Strands

The award has three strands:

• Strand 1: Creative Places Phase 2
  • This strand is only open to applicants who have completed their Creative Places threeyear award and are now entering into the next phase of their development. This award will be for one year, and applicants need only demonstrate their stakeholder engagement and programming plans for 2024. The maximum you can apply for is €70,000.
• Strand 2: Creative Places Year 2 or Year 3
  • This strand is only open for those who have been awarded Creative Places three-year funding in 2022 or 2023 and are entering into Year 2 or Year 3. These applicants should refer to their letters of offer in 2022 and 2023 and apply for no more than the funding indicated that was awarded for Year 2 or Year 3.
• Strand 3: Creative Places Research-and-Development Award
  • This strand is open to new applicants for a one-off Research and Development Award, which can be drawn down over eighteen months. The award covers research fees and consultation costs. The maximum you can apply for is €30,000. In 2024 it is anticipated that up to two awards will be made.
  • Note: from 2025, new applicants to the Creative Places programme for multi-annual funding must have completed this research-and-development strand (Strand 3) in this round of funding or in previous rounds of funding.

Features

Features of Creative Places include:

• Knowledge and understanding of the people and the place being proposed: its demographic profile, its social, cultural and economic strengths, its challenges and aspirations
• Can demonstrate a lack of arts infrastructure/investment in their place (e.g. arts buildings, projects, festivals, galleries, arts organisations, etc.)
• Can demonstrate a lower-than-average public participation or attendance at arts activities
• Can provide evidence that the locality includes higher-than-average numbers of people often experiencing barriers to the arts for various reasons (e.g. older people, people with disabilities, people from migrant backgrounds and/or people facing economic challenges etc.)
• Have a clear understanding of its mission and vision for the programme
• Understands there are many culturally and socially diverse perspectives, and a need for diversity in partnerships across different sectors
• Will connect with and energise local artists and local creative skills
• Understand that time is essential for meaningful relationships and work to flourish, and that it has considered the future sustainability of the project
• Demonstrate the ability to build relationships, build capacity, communicate, plan, deliver, document and evaluate
• Will invest in a dedicated coordination and/or research personnel with appropriate socially engaged arts expertise to work with people and in the place
• In a research phase, has identified clear research questions for a Creative Places programme that will inform a model of best practice

Who can apply?

• Strand 1 and Strand 2 are open only to existing Creative Places Award recipients who have already been awarded three-year funding in the Creative Places programme.
• Strand 3 is open to new applicants, such as local-authority arts offices, including Ealaín na Gaeltachta, arts organisations and community-development organisations (e.g. family-resource centres, agencies or organisations supporting specific groups).
• Applicant arts organisations must be a CLG and demonstrate expertise in socially engaged arts practice. The arts organisation does not have to have an existing connection to the place, but public and community partners do.
• Applicant community-development organisations must be located in the place proposed and be a CLG.
• An organisation must be the lead applicant (not an individual), with a range of other partner organisations. The identification of the lead applicant is at the discretion of the partners.
• Places that have benefitted from other public investment focused on public-realm development or capital-cultural infrastructure can apply, but must demonstrate existing investment has not yet engaged the community in a sustained programme of arts activities. This is people and community-focused investment than can add value to other regeneration initiatives.
• The applicant is the organisation that will receive any grant offered and which will be required to accept the terms and conditions of that grant.
• Any grant offered will be paid only into a bank account held in the name of the applicant.
• All documentation provided must be in the name of the lead applicant.

Who cannot apply?

• Any organisation that does not fall within the categories above is not eligible to apply
• Individuals are not eligible to apply.
• Members of the Council of National Cultural Institutions (CNCI) directly funded by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media cannot be a lead applicant but may be a partner.

For more information, visit The Arts Council.