Call for Entries: Circus Bursary Award 2025 (Ireland)

You can use this bursary to spend time:

• Working at your arts practice
• Researching/thinking about/developing a new idea for future dissemination
• Developing your technical skills in a particular area
• Developing or learning technical skills related to your practice or area of interest
• Working with a mentor or collaborator to develop an idea
• Working with a mentor or collaborator to develop or upskill within a particular area of your practice or an area related to your practice
• Developing an idea in collaboration with a potential production partner or partners.

Objectives

• The objective of the Circus Bursary Award is to support Circus artists and arts practitioners at any stage in their career to develop their arts practice.
• The award emphasises the value and benefit that an extended process of engagement with their practice can bring to an artist’s development.

Priority Areas

• The Arts Council has identified the following strategic priorities for support through this award:
  • Applications from a diverse range of artists and practitioners spanning the breadth of the Traditional and Contemporary Circus sectors
  • Applications that demonstrate excellent skill level in a variety of circus disciplines and/or high-quality cross-disciplinary collaborations
  • Applicants who demonstrate a clear articulation of artistic aims and rationale for undertaking a period of creative reflection
  • Applications from emerging artists and arts practitioners who wish to develop their arts practice through a period of structured mentoring
  • Applications that involve partnership with national organisations (e.g. a festival, local authority, venue or resource organisation) and are aimed at forms of personal professional development that might benefit the broader development of circus practice in Ireland.

Strands

• Strand 1: Traditional Circus
  • This is for applicants whose artistic practice was developed, or is currently centred, in an Irish Traditional Travelling Circus context.
• Strand 2: Contemporary Circus
  • This is for applicants whose artistic practice was developed, or is currently centered, in a Contemporary Circus context.
• Note: You can only apply for one round of the Circus Bursary Award in 2025. There may be a second round in 2025.

Funding Information

• You can apply for any amount between €5,000 and €20,000.
• This bursary is a one-year award. It is not a multi-annual award.

Eligibility Criteria

• This award is open to professional artists who are resident in the Republic of Ireland.
• They may accept applications from outside the Republic of Ireland. In this case, you must detail in your application form how your proposal would benefit the arts in the Republic of Ireland. They would need to be satisfied with your explanation.
• You need a PPS number to be able to apply.
• 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.

Ineligibility Criteria

• They won’t be able to accept your application if you are:
  • An organisation
  • 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.

For more information, visit Art Council.