Deadline: 9-Feb-23
The Arts Council is pleased to announce the nominations for Theatre Bursary Award to support professional artists to develop their art practice.
It provides artists with the time and resources to think, research, reflect and critically engage with their art.
Objectives and Priorities of the Award
- The Theatre Bursary Award supports professional theatre artists to develop their artistic practice at all stages of their career.
- The focus of this award is on professional development. The award therefore provides artists with the time and resources to reflect on, interrogate and advance their artistic practice.
- The award supports a process of structured engagement with the development of theatre practice. There is a particular prioritisation on the development of a particular artistic impulse/artistic direction/area of theatre practice through structured research and experimentation and/or mentorship and/or collaboration.
- Please note that proposals to work on the development of specific projects for development or production – or elements of productions – will not be supported through this award. Equally, proposals for ongoing formal professional training will not be supported.
Aims
- The award aims to:
- Afford theatre artists the time and space to explore and/or research ideas towards a specific artistic impulse and/or
- Support theatre artists to develop their practice through investigation and research or through discrete training opportunities of non-accredited1 study and/or non-vocational training and/or
- Afford theatre artists the time and means to be mentored by a practitioner/s with a significant national or international track record, and/or
- Enable an artist to undertake a residency of no more than one year duration with the partnership of an Arts Council funded arts centre or other relevant Arts-Council funded theatre organisation. In such cases, the specific contents of the work programmes will be designed by the theatre artist in collaboration with an arts centre/festival/Arts Council-funded theatre organisation and the local authority arts office.
Priorities
- Priority will be given to applications from professional theatre artists:
- Who demonstrate ambition and vision in creating a considered and structured approach to a bursary programme
- Who demonstrate how their practice as a theatre professional will benefit from structured, timely support
- Who seek, through national/international collaboration and/or mentorship, to develop their practice and to deepen their understanding and appreciation of theatre as an artform
- Who demonstrate ambition through the quality of the proposed mentorship and/or who propose high-quality professional development support
- Who demonstrate the feasibility of their proposal by providing a realistic budget, timelines and evidence of appropriate supports, including artists’ pay
- Who provide compelling examples of recent, relevant work and/or professional achievements
- Who genuinely seek to develop their practice through investigation and research or through discrete training opportunities of non-formal study and/or non-vocational training
- Who demonstrate the feasibility of their proposal by providing a realistic budget, timelines and evidence of appropriate supports, including artists’ pay.
Funding Information
- The maximum amount that may be awarded to each successful applicant is €20,000. The minimum that can be applied for is €5,000.
Eligibility Criteria
- The award is open to emerging, mid-career and established professional theatre artists working in all genres.
- To be eligible to apply, applicants must:
- Be resident in the Republic of Ireland. There are certain exceptions where the Arts Council may deem eligible applications made by those based outside the Republic of Ireland. However, before admitting as eligible any such application, the applicant would need to explicitly outline within the application how the outcomes of any such proposal would benefit the arts in the Republic of Ireland, and the Arts Council must be satisfied with same.
- Be professional practising theatre artists – as set out under the definition
- Demonstrate a track record with three relevant and recent examples of professional achievements.
Ineligible
- People who are not eligible to apply include the following:
- Individuals currently in undergraduate education (including those undertaking foundation courses)
- Individuals seeking support towards fees for postgraduate, higher education—credited or unaccredited—or formal courses or modules.
- Individuals seeking support towards work undertaken as part of a formal course of study
- Individuals seeking support towards the costs of undertaking an internship or volunteer work
- They cannot accept applications from those employed or contracted on a fulltime basis by an arts organisation funded through Arts Council programmes or through direct state subsidy or by a commercial arts entity
- Aosdána members in receipt of a cnuas.
For more information, visit Arts Council.