Deadline: 11-Sep-2025
The Arts Council is accepting submissions for the Arts Centres Partnership Funding to invests in and supports the infrastructure of arts centres required to sustain and develop the arts in Ireland.
It focuses on year-round production and dissemination of arts activities, events and services of the highest quality throughout the country.
Arts centres are defined as full-time, public-facing, professionally managed, building-based arts organisations.
They support the creation, presentation and mediation of the arts across a range of artforms and arts practices. They support professional, collaborative, voluntary and amateur arts practice.
Aims and Objectives
- In offering Arts Centres Partnership Funding, the Arts Council wishes to ensure:
- The year-round production and dissemination of arts activities, events and services of the highest quality throughout the country
- That audiences are engaged by the provision of a diverse range of high-quality arts experiences.
- That artists are supported in their professional practice
- That audiences, artists and participants reflect the diversity of contemporary Ireland
- Increased depth of engagement by and with the public
- High standards in governance and management.
Eligible Activities
- Arts Centres Partnership Funding is intended to support activities that your organisation undertakes to realise your mission and related operating costs.
- Arts Centres Partnership Funding may not be used for the purchase of capital items.
Eligibility Criteria
- The Arts Centres Partnership Funding Programme is open only to building-based, professionally managed, multidisciplinary arts organisations that are open to the public all year round.
- To be eligible for application, your organisation must:
- Be formally constituted as either a Company Limited by Guarantee (CLG), a Designated Activity Company (DAC), a Company Limited by Shares (LTD) or a statutory body.
- Apply in its own name, and not in the name of another company or individual.
Ineligibility Criteria
- If this is the first time your organisation has applied for Arts Centres Partnership Funding, you must contact the Arts Centres team before applying. Applications received from first-time applicants that have not agreed their eligibility to apply, in writing, with the Arts Centres team will be considered ineligible.
- Organisations that have already applied for funding through Arts Grant Funding 2026 or the Festival Investment Scheme 2026, unless permitted to do so by the Arts Council. Organisations must discuss this with the relevant arts team in advance.
- Members of the Council of National Cultural Institutions (CNCI) directly funded by the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport
For more information, visit The Arts Council.