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New Creative Ireland Programme Scheme 2018/19 announced

Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Josepha Madigan, was joined by author and Fighting Words founder Roddy Doyle for the new scheme's announcement.

A culture-based wellbeing initiative, the Creative Ireland Programme is guided by a vision that every person in Ireland will have the opportunity to realise their full creative potential. In 2017, the programme supported a range of successful talks, workshops and events on culture, creativity and wellbeing, to encourage deeper understanding and appreciation of creativity’s role.

The new 2018/2019 scheme aims to identify, support and collaborate with a range of strategic partners on projects that are genuinely innovative. This will significantly add value and/or scale to the implementation of the programme and will help inform policy and/or cross-sectoral development in the area of culture, creativity and wellbeing. Grants of €10,000 to €70,000* are available to individuals, organisations, community groups, colleges and cultural institutions, amongst others, from an overall fund of €500,000 for this year.

Three themes have been identified as areas of priority for the scheme: Individual and Collective WellbeingInnovation and Connecting Communities.

  • Individual and collective wellbeing: This may include (but is not limited to) creativity-based projects and initiatives that support and advance policy development in the areas of (a) physical, psychological and mental health (b) social cohesion and (c) sustainable, inclusive and nurturing environments.

  • Innovation: This may include imaginative and innovative projects in areas such as (but not limited to) architecture, fashion, heritage, the Irish language, video, film, animation, photography, music, performing arts, creative writing, visual arts, publishing, software/coding, radio and television and craft and design, development of creative clusters.

  • Connecting communities: This may include projects and initiatives that address or explore how community challenges can be addressed through increasing participation to creativity, culture and the arts, particularly isolated, rural and disadvantaged communities and/or the diaspora.

Speaking at the announcement today, Minister Madigan T.D., said:

“The Creative Ireland Programme is an ambitious and ground-breaking initiative which aims to enhance individual and collective wellbeing through increased participation in creative activity. Much has been achieved in the first year of the programme, from Culture Teams in every Local Authority finalising their five-year Culture and Creativity plans to the cross-departmental implementation of the ambitious Creative Youth Plan, which is now well underway. We’re also looking forward to announcing details shortly of our first Cruinniú na nÓg, a national day of youthful creativity, which will unlock the creative potential of children and young people with events taking place in towns and communities across the country.

The new Creative Ireland Programme Fund will enable us to activate, enable and support genuinely ground-breaking and innovative initiatives, research projects and community programmes, which have creativity and wellbeing at their centre, and which will help inform and implement the vision of the Creative Ireland Programme. Through these, we want to encourage ambition, risk, innovation and excellence in the creative and cultural sectors by harnessing the incredible, talent and passion of our citizens and, by working together, across agencies, sectors and organisations, to achieve something truly remarkable.”

Roddy Doyle, author and founder of Fighting Words, said:

“Fighting Words has been engaged with the Creative Ireland Programme since early 2017 and we have been working closely with them on the development and implementation of the Creative Youth Plan. As a pilot project for the new Creative Ireland Programme Scheme, we now have the opportunity to significantly scale up and increase access, at a national level, for children and adults to unlock the power of their own imaginations and to become resilient, creative and successful shapers of their own lives.”

Download application forms for the Creative Ireland Programme Scheme 2018/2019 here.

For guidelines on applying, see here.

Deadline for receipt of application forms has now been extended from 8 June to midnight 15 June 2018.

*The department retains the right to amend the funding thresholds.

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