Deadline: 23-Jul-2026
The Street Performance and Spectacle Project Award Grant supports professional artistic street performance and spectacle projects with strong public impact. The award funds ambitious, innovative, and collaborative projects that engage audiences, increase visibility, and create accessible public arts experiences.
Applicants may apply for funding of up to €50,000. The award is open to eligible individuals and organisations working in street performance and spectacle who are resident or based in the Republic of Ireland.
What is the Street Performance and Spectacle Project Award Grant?
The Street Performance and Spectacle Project Award Grant is a funding opportunity for professional street performance and spectacle projects.
The award supports artists and organisations to produce ambitious public-facing work that engages audiences and strengthens community access to the arts.
Projects should be new to both the artists involved and the audiences who will experience them.
Main Purpose of the Award
The main purpose of the award is to support the production of high-quality street performance and spectacle projects with public impact.
The award aims to:
- Support ambitious street performance projects
- Support professional spectacle initiatives
- Enable public engagement with the arts
- Encourage new artistic ideas
- Promote innovative cross-disciplinary collaboration
- Support accessible public performances
- Increase community engagement
- Strengthen audience development
- Improve visibility of public arts projects
- Support artists working with professional collaborators and partners
Funding Amount
Applicants may apply for up to €50,000.
The requested amount should match the scale, ambition, delivery plan, artistic team, partnerships, and public engagement goals of the project.
Who Can Apply?
The award is open to individuals and organisations working in street performance and spectacle.
Applicants must be resident or based in the Republic of Ireland.
Eligible applicants may include:
- Professional artists
- Arts practitioners
- Street performance artists
- Spectacle artists
- Arts organisations
- Companies working in public performance
- Organisations with a professional track record in street performance or spectacle
Professional Artist Requirement
Individual applicants must be professional artists or arts practitioners.
A professional artist is someone who:
- Actively pursues a career in an artform
- Considers their arts practice their main profession or career
- May or may not earn their main income from arts practice
- Is recognised by peers as a professional practising artist
Applicants must demonstrate a professional track record in artistic practice.
What Types of Projects Are Supported?
The award supports original and ambitious street performance and spectacle projects.
Supported projects may include:
- Street performance productions
- Outdoor spectacle projects
- Public performance initiatives
- Cross-disciplinary public arts projects
- New artistic creations for public spaces
- Projects involving community engagement
- Projects developed with festivals, arts centres, or local authorities
- Collaborative projects involving multiple professional roles
- Accessible public performances with strong visibility
Project Partnership Requirement
Projects must be developed in collaboration with relevant partners.
Potential partners may include:
- Festivals
- Arts centres
- Local authorities
- Public arts organisations
- Community partners
- Cultural organisations
- Other presenting or producing partners
Applicants should clearly explain the role of each partner and how the partnership supports the project’s public impact.
Professional Collaborators
Projects may involve artists and companies working with a range of professional collaborators.
Collaborators may include:
- Dramaturges
- Technicians
- Choreographers
- Musicians
- Producers
- Directors
- Costume designers
- Designers
- Other creative and technical professionals
These collaborations should support innovative, high-quality, and ambitious artistic work.
Key Focus Areas
The award focuses on public artistic impact, collaboration, accessibility, and audience engagement.
Key focus areas include:
- Street performance
- Spectacle
- Public arts
- Audience engagement
- Community engagement
- Accessibility
- Public visibility
- Cross-disciplinary collaboration
- New artistic creation
- Outdoor performance
- Festival partnerships
- Local authority collaboration
- Innovative public presentation
Strategic Priorities
The award prioritises projects that demonstrate artistic ambition and strong public benefit.
Strategic priorities include:
- Creating opportunities for increased community engagement in the arts
- Promoting good practice in audience development
- Supporting accessible public arts experiences
- Demonstrating capacity to deliver ambitious work
- Achieving high public impact and visibility
- Presenting innovative artistic creations
- Supporting high-quality cross-disciplinary collaboration
- Developing projects that are new to artists and audiences
Key Concepts Explained
Street Performance
Street performance refers to artistic work created for public spaces, often performed outdoors or in non-traditional venues where audiences encounter the work directly.
Spectacle
Spectacle refers to large-scale or visually striking artistic performance designed to create strong public impact and audience engagement.
Public Impact
Public impact means the project creates visible, meaningful, and accessible benefits for audiences, communities, and public spaces.
Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration
Cross-disciplinary collaboration involves artists and professionals from different creative or technical fields working together to create a shared artistic project.
Audience Development
Audience development means planning how to reach, engage, include, and grow audiences for artistic work.
Ineligible Applicants
Applications are not accepted from certain individuals and organisations.
Ineligible applicants include:
- Organisations currently funded under Strategic Funding
- Organisations currently funded under Arts Centre Partnership Funding
- Organisations currently funded under Partnership Funding
- Organisations or individuals receiving Arts Grant Funding 2027
- Organisations without a professional track record
- Individuals without a demonstrable track record as professional artists
Organisations receiving Strategic Funding, Arts Centre Partnership Funding, or Partnership Funding may participate as project partners, but they cannot apply directly.
How the Award Works
Applicants should propose a professional street performance or spectacle project with a clear artistic idea, public engagement plan, and partnership structure.
The project should demonstrate:
- Original artistic vision
- Strong public-facing impact
- Professional artistic leadership
- Collaboration with relevant partners
- Audience or community engagement
- Accessibility planning
- Capacity to deliver ambitious work
- Clear project budget and timeline
How to Apply
Applicants should prepare a proposal that clearly explains the project concept, artistic team, partners, public engagement approach, and expected impact.
Suggested Application Steps
- Confirm that the applicant is resident or based in the Republic of Ireland.
- Confirm professional track record in street performance, spectacle, or relevant artistic practice.
- Define the original artistic idea.
- Identify project partners such as festivals, arts centres, or local authorities.
- Explain how the project will engage audiences or the public.
- Describe the creative and technical collaborators involved.
- Show how the project will be accessible and visible.
- Prepare a realistic budget of up to €50,000.
- Check that the applicant is not excluded under ineligible funding categories.
- Submit the application according to the official award requirements.
Assessment Considerations
Applications should demonstrate artistic quality, feasibility, public engagement, and delivery capacity.
Assessment may consider:
- Strength of the artistic idea
- Quality and ambition of the project
- Professional track record of the applicant
- Strength of partnerships
- Public impact and visibility
- Audience development approach
- Accessibility planning
- Community engagement potential
- Cross-disciplinary collaboration
- Feasibility of the budget and timeline
- Capacity to deliver high-quality public work
Expected Results
Funded projects should create strong public arts experiences and support professional artistic development.
Expected results may include:
- New street performance projects
- New spectacle productions
- Accessible public performances
- Increased audience engagement
- Stronger community participation in the arts
- High-visibility public arts events
- Innovative cross-disciplinary work
- Paid opportunities for professional artists and collaborators
- Stronger partnerships between artists, festivals, arts centres, and local authorities
Why It Matters
Street performance and spectacle bring the arts directly into public spaces, reaching audiences who may not attend traditional venues.
These projects can transform streets, parks, civic spaces, festivals, and community settings into shared cultural experiences.
The award helps professional artists and organisations create ambitious public work that is accessible, visible, collaborative, and meaningful for communities.
Tips for Strong Applications
A strong application should clearly show artistic ambition, public value, and delivery capacity.
Applicants should focus on:
- Original artistic concept
- Strong professional track record
- Clear public engagement plan
- Meaningful partnerships
- Accessibility and audience development
- High public visibility
- Strong creative and technical team
- Realistic budget
- Practical timeline
- Clear community benefit
Applicants should avoid proposals that are not clearly new, public-facing, or developed with appropriate partners.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Applicants should carefully check the award’s eligibility and project requirements.
Common mistakes include:
- Applying without a professional track record
- Proposing work that is not new to artists or audiences
- Failing to include suitable partners
- Not explaining public impact clearly
- Providing weak audience development plans
- Overlooking accessibility
- Submitting a project without clear visibility or community engagement
- Applying while receiving Arts Grant Funding 2027
- Applying as an organisation currently funded under excluded schemes
- Providing an unrealistic budget or timeline
FAQ
What is the Street Performance and Spectacle Project Award Grant?
It is a grant that supports professional artistic street performance and spectacle projects with strong public engagement and public impact.
How much funding is available?
Applicants may apply for up to €50,000.
Who can apply?
Individuals and organisations working in street performance and spectacle who are resident or based in the Republic of Ireland may apply if they meet the professional track record requirements.
What types of projects are supported?
Supported projects include ambitious street performance, spectacle, outdoor public performance, cross-disciplinary public arts projects, and accessible public performances developed with partners.
Are partnerships required?
Yes. Projects must be developed in collaboration with partners such as festivals, arts centres, local authorities, or other relevant organisations.
Can Arts Council-funded organisations participate?
Organisations funded under Strategic Funding, Arts Centre Partnership Funding, or Partnership Funding may participate as partners, but they cannot apply directly.
Who is not eligible to apply?
Ineligible applicants include organisations currently funded under excluded schemes, organisations or individuals receiving Arts Grant Funding 2027, organisations without a professional track record, and individuals without a demonstrable professional artist track record.
Conclusion
The Street Performance and Spectacle Project Award Grant supports ambitious, professional, and public-facing artistic projects in the Republic of Ireland. With funding of up to €50,000, the award enables artists and organisations to create new street performance and spectacle work that engages audiences, strengthens community participation, and increases public access to the arts.
Strong applications will demonstrate original artistic ideas, professional practice, strong partnerships, public impact, accessibility, audience development, realistic planning, and high-quality cross-disciplinary collaboration.
For more information, visit The Arts Council.