National Lottery Support for Individual Artists Programme – UK

Types of Schemes

• Broadly, awards can be for specific projects, specialised research or personal artistic development.
  • General Art Awards
    • General Art Awards can be for specific projects, specialised research, personal artistic development and certain materials/equipment.
  • Artists Career Enhancement Scheme (ACES)
    • These awards aim to deepen the developmental impact of Arts Council’s support for artists, with a targeted package of training, mentoring and support provided for successful applicants. Funding is aimed at career artists whose practice is of high quality, original, challenging and innovative. The awards are designed to support artists in their professional development, enabling successful applicants to raise their profile and significantly enhance their career.

Funding Information

• General Art Awards
  • In general, applicants should expect an upper award limit of £5,000 for one project only, though £6,000 may be awarded in exceptional circumstances.
• Artists Career Enhancement Scheme (ACES)
  • There are a limited number of awards of £7,000 in each art form area.
• Duration: The General Art Award and Artists’ Career Enhancement Schemes will only fund proposals that will take place between 10 November 2023 and 31 October 2024.

Eligibility Criteria

• Eligible applicants to SIAP are as follows:
  • Artists of all disciplines and in all types of working practice (including DJs) In a limited number of cases, individual technical staff/administrators of professional artistic companies may also be eligible.
  • Emerging Artists: The Arts Council particularly welcomes applications from emerging artists – an emerging artist is someone who is in the early stage of their career as a professional artist. They are developing their artist ‘voice’ and are in the process of establishing a reputation and recognition among critics, galleries, producers etc, and will have practised as a professional artist for less than 5 years.
  • Employees of statutory bodies, undergraduates and postgraduates are eligible to apply but they must prove that the funds which they are seeking are for work/costs which are not properly the concern of their employer and/or are not related to their work or academic study. They must submit evidence of this in the form of a letter on headed paper from their Head of Department.
    • In the case of post-graduate students, the letter must clearly state the title of the student’s PhD thesis and include a declaration by the Head of Department.
    • Applicants undertaking a Masters or a PhD must also include a separate statement which provides information on how the project applied for differs from their Masters or PhD work.
• Eligible applicants must also:
  • Have made a contribution to artistic activities in Northern Ireland for a minimum period of 1 year within the last 5 years.
  • Live in Northern Ireland.
  • Be at least 18 yrs old and not in secondary education.

Ineligible

• Applicants who have broken the conditions of any previous ACNI award and applicants who remain in breach of any previous letters of offer (regardless of the letter of offer date).
• Applicants who have already received an award within the previous 12 months, under the scheme to which they are applying. This 12-month period runs from the date of the previous award letter.

For more information, visit Arts Council of Northern Ireland.