We begin the month with something we hope will be very special: New Music Dublin. The Arts Council has joined in partnership with RTÉ and the National Concert Hall to create a festival of contemporary music.
The festival has been planned in consultation with internationally-acclaimed composer, conductor and pianist Thomas Adès, and he will conduct the RTÉ Concert Orchestra for the Irish premiere of Alice’s Adventures Underground, a new opera by Gerald Barry. I expect this will be one of the highlights.
Our hope is that by harnessing the unique resources of the three organisations, we will deliver a major new music festival for Ireland at a level that would not be possible by any of the organisations acting alone. We want the festival to act as a platform for the very best of International and Irish contemporary music and music making, and as a focus of energy for the development of audiences for new music in Ireland.
March will also be made special by the formal honouring of film-maker and photographer George Morrison as a Saoi. In being elected a Saoi by his fellow members of Aosdána, he is acknowledged by his peers as having made a significant, remarkable and enduring contribution to his art. And when the President of Ireland, Michael D Higgins, presents George with the golden torc symbolising the honour, his will join a small number of extraordinary names, past and present, including Samuel Beckett, Imogen Stuart, Seamus Heaney, Edna O’Brien, Camille Souter and Seoirse Bodley.
Finally, I would like to encourage all artists and arts workers to keep a close eye on the Arts Council website. We use the web to keep stakeholders informed about how and why we develop the arts, and also list all deadlines for funding.
The Laureate for Irish Fiction is proud to present The Readers’ Voice, a series of author interviews taking place across the country, celebrating the reader, local libraries and outstanding Irish writing.
The deadline for the next round of the Arts Council's Deis Recording & Publication Award is Thursday 6 April, 2017 at 5.30pm. The window for making an application opens on Tuesday 7 March 2017.
The Arts Council and Arts & Disability Ireland announce the deadline for Arts and Disability Connect, an awards scheme for artists with disabilities in the Republic of Ireland.
The Arts Council of Northern Ireland, in partnership with Queen’s University Belfast, is inviting expressions of interest for a new Children’s Writers’ Fellowship.
The Ultimate Cookbook for Cultural Managers – Taxation of Artists in an International Context is the second publication from the RISE Project 2014-2017
This strand of funding is for the support of European platforms to showcase emerging talent and stimulate Europe-wide programming of cultural and artistic activities.
