Call for Submissions: Dance Project Award (Ireland)

Objectives and Priorities

• The purpose of the award is to support ambitious, high-quality, professional dance initiatives that specifically deliver a presentation to, or an engagement with, an audience or public. The focus of the award is on enabling the production of technically excellent and ambitious dance projects, to attract and develop audiences for professional dance, and to offer high-quality employment opportunities to freelance artists.
  This award has two strands:
  • Strand 1
    • The objective of Strand 1 is to support high-quality, ambitious, smaller-scale dance projects. The emphases of this award is on presenting performances/collaborations and/or partnerships, and developing the capacity of the artist and public engagement.
    • Priority will be given to proposals that:
      • Demonstrate ambitious, high-quality, stand-alone initiatives that specifically deliver a presentation to, or an engagement with, an audience or public.
      • Are led by an emerging artist demonstrating strong artistic expression and with potential to further develop their practice through the realisation of new work.
      • Demonstrate ambition and excellence in the quality of mentorship and/or collaboration proposed.
      • Seek to present new work in an innovative and/or experimental context.
      • Can demonstrate their feasibility by offering realistic income projections and evidence of financial and/or in-kind supports from other sources.
  • Strand 2
    • The objective of Strand 2 is to enable the presentation by established artists and/or producing entities with a demonstrable track record in the production of dance for audiences. The focus of the award is on enabling the production of technically excellent and ambitious dance, to attract and develop audiences for professional dance, and to offer employment opportunities to freelance dance artists.
    • Priority will be given to proposals that:
      • Demonstrate ambitious, high-quality, stand-alone initiatives that specifically deliver a presentation to, or an engagement with, an audience or public.
      • Reflect a strong relationship and/or level of investment between the applicant and project partner(s), and lead to high-quality production values for the completed work.
      • Are produced and presented in conjunction with networks or consortia of festivals and/arts centres.
      • Create opportunities to extend the life of the work by securing a broad range of performance platforms within the finite parameters of the project.

Funding Information

• There are two bands of funding available according to which strand you are applying for and according to the scale of the proposal:
  • Strand 1: Up to €50,000
  • Strand 2: Up to €100,000

Eligibility Criteria

• The award is open to professional artists1 and organisations working in dance. To be eligible to apply, applicants must:
  • Be resident in the Republic of Ireland. There are certain exceptions where the Arts Council may deem eligible applications made by those based outside the Republic of Ireland. However, before admitting as eligible any such application, the applicant would need to explicitly outline within the application how the outcomes of any such proposal would benefit the arts in the Republic of Ireland, and the Arts Council must be satisfied with same.

Ineligible

• Applicants who cannot apply include the following:
  • Organisations currently in receipt of funding under the following Arts Council programmes: Strategic Funding, Arts Centre Funding, Partnership Funding – though the involvement of such organisations as partners is welcome.
  • Organisations or individuals in receipt of 2024 Arts Grant Funding.
  • National Cultural Institutions (or their Council members) directly funded by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media
  • Individuals or organisations who do not have a demonstrable track record as professional artists or organisations.
  • Individuals currently in undergraduate education (including those undertaking foundation courses) or who will be during the period for which this award is offered.
  • Individuals seeking support towards fees for postgraduate (including unaccredited)/higher education or study.
  • Note: You cannot apply for the award both as an individual and as part of an organisation – e.g. you cannot apply as artistic director of a company and also apply separately under your own name.

For more information, visit The Arts Council.