The Arts Council Culture Night Late Grant (Ireland)

The award is to encourage more-inclusive and innovative flagship late-night arts events suitable for a range of audience types. Events should attract a large diverse audience and offer audiences a greater diversity in their Culture Night experience late into the night.

The award will support:

• local-authority- arts office identified-and-led late-night flagship events with an audience capacity of over 500 people in partnership with one or more arts centres/arts organisations/arts festivals and/or curators, or
• arts centre/arts organisation/production company /arts festival-led late-night flagship events with an audience capacity of over 500 people in partnership with the respective local authority arts office and other arts partners.

Strategic Priorities

• The Arts Council has identified the following as strategic priorities for support through this award:
  • Public space: the importance of accessible shared places and spaces and how these are or can be used for the wider engagement of the public through the arts – e.g. outdoor spaces (parks, streets, town squares) and public buildings/spaces not ordinarily used for the arts with due consideration for permissions and noise curfews as they apply locally
  • Artistic excellence: high-quality, ambitious and collaborative approach for excellent arts activities in any or multiple artforms or practices
  • Partnership: i.e. identifying relevant arts and public partners that can support the delivery of a Culture Night Late event
  • Public engagement and inclusion: i.e. have core considerations around access, equality, diversity and inclusion as per the Arts Council’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion policy and which address the challenges outlined in pages 12–13 of the Report of the Night-Time Economy Taskforce
  • Supporting artists: ensuring best practice in payment of artists as per Paying the Artist policy and ensuring due consideration is given to working with artists with disabilities
  • Financial support: the level of cash and/or in-kind investment by the supporting partner(s). This must be a minimum of 40% of the event’s total costs.
  • Open and free to the public: events must be free to the public, with ticketing or prebooking arrangements in place as appropriate
  • Commencing at 9.00pm or later and continuing late into the night with due consideration for licensed opening hours, permissions, noise curfews, etc. as they apply locally.

Funding Information

• Your application must be for an innovative large scale event that will take place on Culture Night 2024.
• The maximum you can apply for is €12,500.
• The award will cover 60% of costs, and the remainder (at least 40%) should be matched by the applicant/project partners. 25% of matched income can be support in kind.
• The award will cover artists’ fees, curatorial fees, production fees and costs (this can include the hire or creation of temporary structures), technical costs and security. The award will not cover fixed capital costs or assets.
• 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.

Who can apply?

• The award is open to local authority arts offices (including Ealaín na Gaeltachta), arts festivals, arts centres, production companies and arts organisations only to create a Culture Night Late event in a public space or place.
• Lead applicants must be either:
  • A local authority arts office in partnership with one or more arts centre/arts organisations/arts festival/producer/curator/production company, or
  • An arts centre/arts organisation/arts festival/production companyin partnership with a local-authority arts office and other arts partners/artists.
• In partnerships where more than one applicant qualifies to be lead applicant, the identification of the lead applicant is at the discretion of the partners.
• All applications must involve a local-authority Arts Office, which are the local coordinators of Culture Night. Other potential partners include arts centres, arts organisations, arts festivals, artists, non-arts groups/organisations/production companies /agencies etc.
• Non-arts organisations could be considered partners in a project on condition that the project involves two or more arts partners.
• The applicant is the organisation that will receive any grant offered and which will be required to accept the terms and conditions of the grant.
• The grant will be paid only into a bank account held in the name of the lead applicant.
• All documentation provided must be in the name of the lead applicant.

Who cannot apply?

• This scheme is only open to local-authority arts office or arts centres/arts organisations/arts festivals/production companies in the Republic of Ireland, including Ealaín na Gaeltachta. An organisation or individual who does not fit into this category is not eligible to apply as lead applicant.

For more information, visit The Arts Council.