Deadline: 24-Jul-25
The Arts Council is accepting nominations for the Circus Project Award to support specific artistic projects in circus.
It focuses on enabling individual artists and organisations to bring their ideas to fruition and create excellent artistic work.
Objectives
- The purpose of the award is to support high-quality, stand-alone circus initiatives that specifically deliver a presentation to, or an engagement with, an audience or public.
- Potential circus proposals could be those that:
- Allow artists and companies to engage in high-quality collaborations with professionals such as dramaturgs, choreographers, producers, technicians, directors, set designers and costume designers to develop work that is new to both the artists involved and audiences
- Enable artists to create work that changes their own concepts of current working practices, creating new, high-quality work for Irish audience
- Enable artists to create work that pushes the boundaries of circus practice in Ireland.
Funding Information
- You may apply for up to 50,000
Eligible Projects
- The Arts Council has identified the following types of projects as strategic priorities for support through this award:
- Projects that demonstrate excellent skill level in a variety of circus disciplines and/or high-quality cross-disciplinary collaborations
- Projects that create opportunities to extend the life of the work by securing a broad range of performances within the finite parameters of the project
- Projects that reflect a strong relationship and/or level of investment between the artist and project partner(s), and lead to high-quality production values for the completed work
- Projects that have potential to be enjoyed widely in the communities, public spaces (real and virtual) and in dedicated venues and centres across the country, especially offering a meaningful access to and/or engagement with the arts and that reach new and diverse audiences.
Who can apply?
- The award is open to professional artists and organisations working in circus who are resident or based in Republic of Ireland.
- They may accept applications from applicants who are not resident in the Republic of Ireland.
Who cannot apply?
- Applicants who are not eligible to apply include the following:
- Organisations currently in receipt of funding under the following Arts Council programmes: Strategic Funding, Arts Centre Funding, Partnership Funding though the involvement of such organisations as partners is welcome
- Organisations or individuals in receipt of 2026 Arts Grant Funding
- National Cultural Institutions (or their Council members) directly funded by the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport
- Individuals or organisations that do not have a demonstrable track record as professional artists or organisations
For more information, visit The Arts Council.