Traditional Arts Project Award in Ireland

Objectives and Priorities of the Award

There are two strands to the award:

• Strand 1: Small & Medium Scale The purpose of Strand 1 is to support one-off or short-term projects that are led by the traditional arts but can involve collaboration with other artforms.
  • Priority will be given to projects that demonstrate:
    • Attention to artistic quality
    • Creativity
    • Significant benefit to the traditional-arts community.
• Strand 2: Large Scale
  • The purpose of Strand 2 is to support:
    • Ambitious and high-quality projects, including those that have the potential to make a significant and lasting impact on the traditional-arts landscape
    • Ambitious and large-scale initiatives led by artists with a demonstrable track record in professional traditional-arts practice that specifically focus on producing a work, event or project for a sizeable audience
    • Projects that involve highly creative performances of a broad repertoire and/or working with expert practitioners
    • Artists who engage in devised or collaborative creative processes.
• Potential proposals in both Strand 1 and Strand 2 could be those that:
  • Involve the creation and/or presentation of new work
  • Deliver significant development opportunities to practitioners
  • Have an emphasis on archival material
  • Have an emphasis on audience development, professional development and research
  • Are performance oriented and focus on repertoire new to audiences across all traditional-arts genres (music, song, dance and/or the oral arts, such as storytelling and agallamh beirte), and/or offer experiences unique in the context for which they are intended
  • Bring the traditional arts of all genres to new contexts or new audiences or expand the avenues through which traditional artists reach people
  • Are high-quality artistic projects that demonstrate a strong and imaginative curatorial approach
  • Have the potential to showcase high-quality traditional arts to a national and international audience.

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: Small & Medium Scale
    • Amount: €20,000
  • Strand 2: Large Scale
    • Amount: €80,000 (Because of budgetary constraints, applications seeking the higher amount of support (i.e. €80,000) will be funded only in exceptional circumstances)
• You may apply for support under only one strand of the award.
• In addition to the normal limits stated above, the Arts Council will also consider costs specifically relating to the making of work by artists with disabilities. If you wish to apply for additional funding on this basis, you should provide information with your application outlining these additional costs.

Ineligible Funding

• Major capital purchases
• The purchase of musical instruments
• Stand-alone recording and publication projects – proposals for recording and publication are considered under a separate award
• Ongoing core costs
• Activities or costs that do not fit the purpose of the award
• Activities that are more suited to another award funded by the Arts Council (e.g. Touring), Music Network, Ealaín na Gaeltachta or operated by other state agencies, such as Culture Ireland
• Activities that have already taken place or which will have commenced before 1 March 2024
• Activities that are an intrinsic part of ongoing formal education
• Activities undertaken for charity-fundraising purposes, for participation in a competition, or for primarily profit-making purposes
• Activities that have already been assessed by the Arts Council, unless you demonstrate that you have substantively developed the proposal since previously applying

Eligibility Criteria

The award is open to professional artists, groups of artists and organisations working in the traditional arts.

• 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.

Ineligibility Criteria

• Applicants who are not eligible to 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
  • Individuals who work on an ongoing basis with organisations funded through any of the above programmes
  • 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.