Street Performance and Spectacle Bursary Award (Ireland)

The award emphasizes the value and benefit that an extended process of engagement with their practice can bring to an artist’s development. For this reason, the award provides artists and arts practitioners with the time and resources to think, research, reflect and engage with their arts practice.

Priorities

• The Arts Council has identified the following strategic priorities for support through this award:
  • 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 allow professional artists to explore new creative practices within the context of multidisciplinary arts or by working in collaboration with professional artists with a background in other art forms.

Funding Information

• You can apply for any amount between €5,000 and €20,000.
• You can’t apply for amounts below €5,000 or above €20,000. If you do, your application will be ineligible and they won’t assess it. However, artists with disabilities can include additional access costs in their application. This is separate from the amount that you request for your proposal.

Eligible Activities

• You can use this bursary to spend time:
  • Working at your arts practice
  • Researching/thinking about/developing a new idea for future dissemination
  • 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 collaboration to develop or up skill 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.
• You can also use this bursary to:
  • Undertake a short period of training such as master classes or other professional training opportunities (whether national or international)
  • Purchase a limited amount of equipment and materials to assist with the development of your practice. This can be no more than 15% of the value of the overall request for support
  • Do a combination of any of the activities above.

Eligibility Criteria

• This award is open to professional artists who are resident in the Republic of Ireland. However, 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.
• 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 art form
  • 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 practicing 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 a resident in the Republic of Ireland
  • An Aosdána member in receipt of a Cnuas.

For more information, visit The Arts Council.