Professional artists, curators, arts practitioners and arts organisations working within the visual arts can apply to Arts Council funding awards for financial support. We consider visual arts to include a range of media such as painting, drawing, sculpture, printmaking, photography, live art/performance, film, video or other digital imaging media. You can learn more about the remit of the Visual Arts supports here.

To be considered a professional arts practitioner you might not earn income continuously or exclusively from your artistic/curatorial practice, but you must identify yourself, and be recognised by your peers, as a professional practising artist, curator, or practitioner.

Visual Arts funding supports independent professional visual arts practitioners to develop their practice and create new work (Visual Arts Bursary Award, Agility Award, Markievicz Award, Next Generation Award), and to research, produce and present new work to audiences within Ireland (Visual Arts Project Award, Open Call). We also support visual arts organisations to present work and support the infrastructure of visual arts throughout Ireland, ensuring its sustainability and vibrancy into the future. (Arts Grants Funding, Strategic Funding). You can learn more about available funding here.

Note: The Arts Council does not support commercial, charitable or fund raising activities.

As a potential applicant for Visual Arts funding, you should consider what the aims of your proposal are and what activities you are seeking funding to support. A number of Visual Arts funding awards are available, and each one is directed towards a specific area of visual arts 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 visual art 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. 

Each funding award has a set of specific activities that it is intended to support. These are outlined in a set of ‘Guidelines’ that are published on our website for each award. See here for all our awards and their corresponding guidelines. 

Bursary-style Awards (e.g. Visual Arts Bursary Award, Agility Award, Markievicz Award, Next Generation Award) can support professional visual arts practitioners to develop their practice and make new work, while more outcome-driven awards (e.g. Visual Arts Project Award) support the research, production, and presentation of new work to a public audience within Ireland.

Established visual arts practitioners with a significant track record can also apply for Open Call, a programme for artists and arts organisations to develop and shift their practice, and create ambitious new high-profile work on a national scale; and Arts Grant Funding, which supports organisations and individuals to carry out a series of activities taking place within a fixed period of time.

Visual arts organisations can apply to: the Visual Arts Project Award for support towards the research, production, and presentation of new work to a public audience; Arts Grant Funding to support a series of activities/multiple projects over a fixed period of time; or Open Call to develop and shift visual arts practice and create an ambitious high-profile work on a national scale.

Groups of visual artists can apply to the Visual Artists Workspace Scheme for support towards the running of their workspaces, and where feasible, to enable a level of subsidy for the artists working in their spaces.

There are a number of leading key organisations with an established track record who are supported through Strategic Funding. These organisations support the essential infrastructure of the Visual Arts throughout Ireland by developing artists’ practices and ideas, and delivering excellent arts experiences to the public.

The aim of the Visual Arts Bursary Award is to support individual professional artists and curators to develop their artistic practice with funds to sustain an extended period of time developing and working in their studio/workspace.

The Next Generation Award can also support artists with time to develop their practice in the studio. This once-off and exceptional award is designed to support emerging artists at an early but pivotal stage in their career to develop and advance their practice. 

Before applying for any award, please ensure that you read the most up-to-date award guidelines on our website.

Yes. The aim of the Visual Arts Bursary Award is to support individual professional artists and curators to develop their artistic practice, and it emphasises the value of extended periods of time spent engaging with your work in your studio/workspace. Requests for support towards the cost of renting a studio/workspace can be included in your Bursary application. 

Groups of visual artists can apply to the Visual Artists Workspace Scheme for support towards the running of their workspaces, and where feasible, to enable a level of rental subsidy for the artists working in their spaces.

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 the exhibition of artwork abroad. In the case of the latter, you can contact Culture Ireland via their website www.cultureireland.ie   

Read the guidelines carefully; the guidelines for each funding award include everything that you need to know; from the activities that the award supports, to what supporting material you need to include in your application, and the criteria your application will be assessed against. 

Check that your proposal is suited to the specific objectives of the award that you are applying to. Each funding award has a set of specific activities that it is intended to support, these are outlined in the ‘Guidelines’ that are published on our website for each award. See here for all our awards and for their corresponding guidelines. 

Be clear about what you want to achieve with the funding support that you are applying for, and include in your proposal how the activities that you have outlined meet the objectives and priorities of the award you are applying for. 

Ensure that your supporting material is of good quality; provide good-quality visual and/or written examples of your work that demonstrate your practice to date and are relevant to your proposed activities.

Each funding award has a specific set of criteria in relation to eligibility. These can be found in the guidelines for each award.

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
• Visual Arts Bursary Award Round 1
• Visual Arts 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 (e.g. CV, images, video links, project plan, budget, etc.). If your application is missing required supporting material, your application will not be considered for assessment.
  
  

  Please note, some Visual Arts awards require different supporting material for each strand of the award (e.g. Project Award Strand 1 and Strand 2). Please read the guidelines carefully to ensure that you submit all required supporting material with your application.

• 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.

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

The Arts Council has a finite budget compared with the number of applications it receives. Due to this, and the competitive nature of the awards, it is not possible to fund all eligible and good applications. Eligibility and compliance with criteria for assessment alone does not guarantee receipt of an award. All awards are made in a competitive environment focusing on the criteria outlined for the award.

Remember that being unsuccessful does not exclude you from applying to future rounds or other awards from the Arts Council. However, please note that you may not apply for activities that have already been assessed by the Arts Council unless you demonstrate that you have developed the proposal since previously applying.

Every eligible application is assessed by a Visual Arts Advisor and/or the Visual Arts team. Each application is assessed against how it meets the assessment criteria for the award. The assessment criteria for each award is included in the relevant award guidelines under the section titled ‘How we assess your application’.

If you would like to read the assessment of your application, please email the Visual Arts Officer and we will send you a copy of your assessment. You can request to see the assessment of your application regardless of whether it was successful or unsuccessful.  

Unfortunately due to time constraints the Visual Arts team is not in a position to meet with individuals other than in exceptional circumstances. However, you can email or phone us any time with questions and we will get back to you as soon as possible and do our best to assist. You are advised to look at the Arts Council website first, where most standard questions about the application process can be answered, and where there is information about all available funding.