As a potential applicant for Dance funding, you should consider what the aims of your proposal are and what activities you are seeking funding to support. A number of Dance funding awards are available, and each one is directed towards a specific area of Dance activity. For each round of an award that is offered, a set of ‘Guidelines’ is published on the Arts Council’s website. The activities that each funding award aims to support are outlined in the corresponding award guidelines, under the section on award objectives/purpose and priorities. This section should be read when considering which funding award is most suited to the Dance activities that you wish to undertake, and before making your application.

See here for a list of all our awards and corresponding guidelines. 

As an early career professional artist you can consider making an application to the Agility Award or the Bursary Award. The Agility Award aims to support individual professional freelance artists and arts workers at any stage in their careers to develop their practice, work, or skills. The Bursary Award aims to support professional artists at any stage of their career to develop their practice. It provides artists with the time and resources to think, research, reflect and critically engage with their work. In 2023, you can only make one application to either the Agility Award or the Bursary Award; you will not be eligible to make an application to both.  

Yes, although they might not earn income continuously or exclusively from their arts practice, applicants must identify themselves and be recognised by their peers as professional practising artists.

You can apply for the Dance Project Award. The purpose of this award is to support ambitious, high-quality, stand-alone initiatives that specifically deliver a presentation to or an engagement with an audience or public. You can find out more about this here: http://www.artscouncil.ie/Funds/Dance-project-award/

You can look at the Dance Artist Residency Scheme. The objective of this award is to stabilise and support a network of dance artists in residence across the country. The scheme is specifically aimed at dance artists working in collaboration with a venue and a local authority. You can access information about this here: http://www.artscouncil.ie/Funds/Dance-artist-residency-scheme/

Yes. While the Travel and Training Award is currently paused, artists, curators and arts practitioners can apply to the Agility Award. This award is open to applications specifically intended to develop practice, skills or work. This can include development opportunities abroad and costs relating to international travel for the development of artistic practice, skills or work. 

Note: It is not the remit of the Arts Council to support study abroad or dance residencies abroad. In the case of the latter, you can contact Culture Ireland via their website www.cultureireland.ie 

The Arts Council does not currently provide funding towards undergraduate and vocational courses in dance. Our main focus is on funding the work of artists who have already embarked on their professional career. 

Each funding award has a specific set of criteria in relation to eligibility. These can be found in the guidelines for each award. Please read the guidelines carefully to ensure that you submit all required supporting material with your application.

Here is an overview of some general eligibility restrictions for making an application in 2023: 

• Applicants can only make one eligible application to one of the following awards in 2023:
  
  - Agility Award Round 1 
  - Agility Award Round 2 
  - Bursary Award Round 1 
  - Bursary Award Round 2 
  - Markievicz Award 
  - Next Generation Award 
  
  For example, this means that if you make an application to the 2023 Agility Award Round 1, you will not be eligible to make an application to the Bursary Award Round 1, Agility Award Round 2, Bursary Award Round 2, Next Generation Award, or the Markievicz Award in 2023;
  
• Anyone currently enrolled as an undergraduate student cannot apply for Arts Council funding;
• Applicants can apply as a postgraduate student, but not for fees or for activities related to their studies;
• Applicants are not permitted to re-submit proposals which have already been assessed by the Arts Council, unless you demonstrate that you have developed the proposal since previously applying;
• You must submit all of the required supporting material as outlined in the award guidelines with your application form. ‘Supporting material’ is material that is separate from and additional to your application form (for example: CV, images, video links, project plan, budget, and so on). If your application is missing required supporting material, your application will not be considered for assessment;
• You must be resident in the Republic of Ireland to be eligible to make an application for funding to the Arts Council. There are certain exceptions where the Arts Council may deem eligible applications made by those based outside the Republic of Ireland. 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. 
  

The most common mistake is not giving yourself enough time to read the guidelines and prepare for what you have to do to make a successful application. 

Other common mistakes include (where applicable for each award): 

• Missing the deadline;

• No supporting material or missing supporting materials;
  

• No budget template;

• No letters of support or MOUs (Memorandum of Understanding);

• Insufficient evidence of financial support from other sources;

• Insufficient evidence of collaborators or partners;

• Lack of clear detail about what is proposed and how it will be achieved.

Each award and scheme has its own set of guidelines. Within the guidelines document in each case, the process for assessing and adjudicating on applications is set out under Section 3, 'Processing and assessment of applications'.  

For general information about the Arts Council's mission and overall strategy, we advise that you look at Making Great Art Work

On account of the large volume of applications received by Dance, the assessment and decision-making process usually takes approximately ten to fifteen weeks.

The letter of offer you receive will outline the steps required to draw down any funding offered. Whether you are applying as an individual, a company or partnership, you will need a tax clearance certificate and a bank account in the name of the applicant. Monies offered cannot be paid by the Arts Council to an account in a name other than that of the applicant.

The Arts Council has launched its new Dance policy: Advancing Dance 2022-2025. This policy will increase the capacity of the dance sector in Ireland through action and investment.