July is always a great month for the arts in Ireland, and our summer festivals in particular, big and small, will be putting their best foot forward. From Donegal to Cork, Galway to Dublin, they will as always engage, entrance and entertain people of all ages and from all backgrounds. I heartily encourage everyone to participate.

Also in July, the Arts Council will publish the first of the three-year plans envisaged in our strategy, Making Great Art Work. The plan, which goes from 2017 to 2019, describes the investment strategies, projects and programmes we will prioritise during the period, and identifies the achievements and milestones we have set ourselves for the next three years.

It will establish the sequence in which we will develop our capacity to support and renew the sector; review and enact new models of investment in the work of artists and arts organisations; measure the effects of investment; and develop partnerships both within and outside the sector.

I would like to remind arts organisations that we fund through our main revenue grants programmes that we have brought forward by four weeks the closing date for applications to the 2017 main revenue funding programmes. This is to ensure that we can provide applicants with 2017 funding decisions by the end of November.

So please remember that the application window for our main revenue grants programmes will open on 19 July 2016 and close at 5:30pm on 8 September 2016. That is a total of seven weeks, so please don’t leave it until the last day!

Yours sincerely,

Orlaith McBride
Director