The Art Council: Festivals Investment Scheme in Ireland

Deadline: 1-Jun-23

The Arts Council announces round one of the Festivals Investment Scheme (FIS) to advocate for and support the development of a diverse and varied arts-festival ecology, and to provide a suite of supports that encourage best-practice festival models that increase opportunities for public engagement and participation in the arts or develop the work of an artist/artform.

In this regard the Arts Council offers financial support to small-to-mid-scale festivals to deliver high-quality arts experiences for audiences, and prioritises programmes engaged with, and relevant to, local communities or communities of interest.

The Arts Council acknowledges the diversity of festival operating models and the rich variety of artform-practice areas presented by festivals and their critical role in broadening public access to the arts. The Council also acknowledges the valuable contribution made by voluntary committees in developing these festivals.

In this regard the Arts Council welcomes applications from organisations (voluntary and professional) operating annual, biennial or triennial festival programmes and supports both multi-disciplinary arts festivals as well as those in a single artform discipline through this award.

Objectives

• To ensure a diverse and varied arts-festival ecology by supporting a variety of small-to-midscale festival programmes and festival models to deliver high-quality and engaging arts-festival activity/programmes for audiences so as to contribute to the development of artform practices and to increase opportunities for public engagement.

Purpose

• The Arts Council will achieve the objectives of the Festival Investment Scheme by supporting project proposals that:
  • Express an overarching artistic vision that resonates with the nature of the proposed activities and demonstrates artistic excellence
  • Show evidence of a commitment to the Arts Council’s artform priorities relevant to the programme proposed
  • Demonstrates sound and effective festival and financial management, a track record of excellence, and delivery to a high standard, ensuring the project proposed is feasible.

Priorities of the Scheme

• Priority will be given to proposals that:
  • Demonstrate public engagement by:
    • Evidence of audience-development strategies that provide opportunities for the public to attend arts events and/or to participate in arts activities
    • Providing opportunities for the public to collaborate with artists.
  • Demonstrate festival priorities by:
    • Producing evidence of a high level of integration with local resources and supports from a diverse range of partners
    • Showing an understanding of the context/place the festival is being presented in, and evidence of the value and relevance to the immediate community
    • Evidencing an awareness of artists living in the region, and how the festival is working to support their development.
  • Demonstrate equality, diversity and inclusion priorities by:
    • Showing how equality, diversity and inclusion are included in the organisation’s working practices.

Funding Information

• The Festivals Investment Scheme is a competitive scheme that offers funding to support the staging of festivals on a non-recurring basis.
• There are three bands of funding available:
  • Band A – For awards up to €10,000
  • Band B – For awards of €10,001–€25,000
  • Band C – For awards of €25,001–€45,000

Eligibility Criteria

• Round 1 is open to organisations resident in the Republic of Ireland promoting festivals with a
• clear artistic purpose and which commence between 1 January – 30 June 2024.
• An organisation may make only one application under the Festivals Investment Scheme in a
• year (i.e. one application in one band per calendar year).
• For applicants to Band B:
  • Organisations must has been established for a minimum of three years and executed three consecutive festival programmes for the festival project.
• For applicants to Band C:
  • Organisations must has been established for a minimum of five years and executed five consecutive festival programmes for the festival project.

Ineligibility Criteria

• Organisations that are not eligible to apply under the scheme include the following:
  • Individuals
  • Organisations whose proposed activities would be better suited to another Arts Council funding scheme
  • Commercial organisations that share out profits to members
  • Organisations based abroad; however, applicants based in the Republic of Ireland may collaborate with an organisation based abroad
  • Organisations where the dominant element of the programme is competitive in nature
  • Organisations in receipt of Strategic Funding, Partnership Funding or Arts Centre Funding
  • Organisations that have applied for or are in receipt of Arts Grant Funding 2024 to undertake a festival programme
  • Members of the Council of National Cultural Institutions (CNCI) directly funded by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media
  • Organisations directly funded by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media for festival programmes in 2024 (including funding offered through the Small Scale Local Festivals and Summer Schools scheme).
  • Organisations proposing festival programmes that fall outside the qualifying dates for this application round.

For more information, visit The Arts Council.