This month we announce our new funding framework – the different categories and ways in which we will be supporting and developing the arts over the coming years. The new framework is rooted in our new, 10-year strategy, Making Great Art Work and is intended to streamline the supports available to artists and to arts organisations, and to simplify and clarify our application, assessment and decision-making processes.

We have been acutely aware over the past number of years that many artists making excellent, innovative, ambitious and vibrant work have not had the range of opportunities they might wish to develop their practice and take their ideas further. At the same time, we are aware that many established organisations have not been able to plan over a longer horizon than a single year, which has reduced their capacity to build relationships over time, look to create partnerships both national and international, and plan strategically into the future.

To address these and related issues, the Council undertook a review of its funding programmes, to help us to think about how we invest in art and arts practice, and how we might do this in a more effective way.

• Our new Funding Framework will have five funding categories.

• Artists’ Supports, to help individual artists deveop their ideas and practice.

• Project and Programmes, to provide funding to support individuals and organisations develop specific ideas or activities.

• Strategic Funding, to fund arts organisations with ambitious and imaginative proposals or to assist artists in developing new work, or to deliver excellent arts experiences for the public.

• Partnership, to provide funding to support local authorities in delivering arts experiences across Ireland.

• Development, to support a range of developmental activities related to our strategic priorities.

You can read the full document here

We have just held information sessions in Cork, Dublin and Sligo to explain the detail of the framework to artists and arts organisations. Don’t worry if you missed them, you can watch a recording on our Facebook page here. We will hold a workshop on 28 July specifically for organisations applying under our new Strategic Funding category, and we plan to record that too. You can read more about it elsewhere in this newsletter.

Finally, in November, we will publish our investment plan for 2018. This will be based on the overall strategic priorities, and will show the amounts within each funding category.

Yours sincerely,

Orlaith McBride
Director