Nominations open for Upstart Awards 2025 (Ireland)

UPSTART is an initiative of Mayo County Council’s Arts Service which aims to incentivise quality artistic collaborations between groups/ people with disabilities, artists, arts venues and organisations within County Mayo.

Award Information

• Awards, in the main, range from €500 to €2000.

Eligible Projects

• Projects that focus on creative work by people with disabilities.
• Projects that are additional to a groups’ or organisations’ regular programme of work.
• Projects that involve the development of new work in a new art-form.
• Projects that engage people with disabilities as artists, participants or audience members.
• An event to celebrate arts and disability.
• A workshop or a series of workshops in the lead up to December 3rd with a local group of people with disabilities. (This should be facilitated by a professional artist with experience of working with people with disabilities.)
• A performance for an invited audience of a work in progress/ event (film, theatre, dance, music, choral or other event) by a group of people with disabilities, which has come about through collaboration with a professional artist/artist.
• A mainstream performance that will be made accessible for an audience of people with disabilities. (i.e. audio described/ sign language interpreted/ text captioned etc)
• A project/performance/exhibition by emerging artist(s) with disabilities, or a group of people with disabilities who have produced work with a professional artist.
• A closed event for a specific group of people with disabilities.

Ineligible Projects

• Projects that have already taken place.
• Projects that operate in contexts outside the arts
• Projects developed as tools for Advocacy, occupational or therapy purposes.
• Projects developed as tools for wellbeing or life skills development.
• Projects which are primarily based in health-care contexts and are focused on health gain.
• Projects that are part of an ongoing arts programme.
• Projects which take place outside the county.
• Projects/Events already funded by Mayo County Council Arts Service

Eligibility Criteria

• Venues that have participated in Mayo County council’s Arts and Disability Programme.
• Artists who have participated in Disability Equality Training. (The professional artist’s C.V should show evidence of experience of working with people with disabilities).
• Emerging individual artists with disabilities.
• Groups of people with disabilities interested in working with a particular artist and/or venue to develop a project.

Assessment Criteria

• Applications will be assessed by an external panel with experience in the area of arts and disability and the following criteria will be used:
  • Artistic Quality of the proposed activity/event
  • Track record of the applicant
  • The benefit of the support to applicant
  • The extent to which People with Disabilities are involved in the planning/development of the project/event.
  • Matching resources

For more information, visit Mayo County Council Arts Service.