Arts Participation Bursary Award 2025 (Round 1) – Ireland

You can use this bursary to spend time:

• Working at your practice, including critical reflection and evaluation.
• Researching, thinking about or developing a new idea for future dissemination. This may include working with a mentor, potential partners, other artists or arts professionals.
• Developing or learning new skills related to your practice.

Objectives

• The objective of the Arts Participation Bursary Award is to support individual professional artists working in any artform to develop their participatory, collaborative, community and socially engaged arts practice.

Priority Areas

• The strategy has five priority areas:
  • The Artist
  • Public Engagement
  • Investment Strategy
  • Spatial and Demographic Planning
  • Developing Capacity

Funding Information

• You can apply for any amount between €5,000 and €20,000.

Eligibility Criteria

• A professional artist is someone who:
  • Actively pursues a career as an artist in any artform
  • Considers their arts practice to be their main profession or career. This applies even if their work in the arts is not their main source of income or they have other employment.
  • Is recognised by their peers as a professional practising artist. You can apply for this bursary if you:
  • Have a track record of working collaboratively to make art with individuals and groups that are not arts professionals
• Work in any of the following contexts:
  • Health
  • Disability
  • Cultural diversity
  • Creative ageing
  • Community development
  • Other communities of place or interest.
  • Demonstrate clear artistic vision and commitment to artistic outcomes in your work, alongside any other goals such as inclusion, well-being and community development
  • Ensure quality of engagement in your work – for example, in the development, planning, making, presentation and evaluation of work.

Ineligibility Criteria

• They won’t be able to accept your application if you are:
  • An organisation
  • Not a professional artist who is proposing to develop your individual arts practice – for example, creative products, curators, arts managers and other arts professions
  • A full-time undergraduate student (including foundation courses)
  • Looking for support towards fees for postgraduate/higher education or study (including unaccredited courses)
  • Looking for support towards work you’re doing as part of a formal course, internship or volunteer work
  • If you are in full-time employment, you must be seeking time away from employment to work on your practice, and how you plan to approach this should be outlined in your application
  • Not resident in the Republic of Ireland
  • An Aosdána member in receipt of a Cnuas.
• They also cannot accept your application if your proposal:
  • Has a primary focus on therapeutic or clinical outcomes
  • Involves a focus on young people, unless there is a specific focus on intergenerational arts practice.

For more information, visit Arts Council.