Culture Ireland – Grant programme
Culture Ireland promotes Irish arts worldwide. They create and support opportunities for Irish artists and companies to present and promote their work at strategic international festivals and venues. They develop platforms to present outstanding Irish work to international audiences, through showcases at key global arts events, including the Edinburgh Festivals and the Venice Biennales. Culture Ireland also presented an international culture programme to celebrate the Ireland 2016 Centenary Programme globally.
Culture Ireland's grant funding allows Irish artists to travel, present and perform their work to international audiences.
Culture Ireland was established in 2005 to promote and advance Irish arts in a global context, helping to create international opportunities for Irish artists and cultural practitioners and leading to a deeper mutual understanding between Irish and other cultures and communities.
The strategies being pursued to help realise this mission include: providing a flexible range of international funding supports for artists and cultural practitioners; supporting Irish participation in key international showcases, festivals and promotional events; strengthening Ireland’s cultural networks abroad; exploring issues of European cultural identity, diversity and commonality; strengthening cultural relationships with other countries; encouraging diverse cultural communities in Ireland to participate in international artistic exchange and dialogue; contributing to intercultural dialogue; and managing strategic initiatives in response to Government priorities, for example a major Irish arts season in the United States in 2016 as part of Ireland's international commemoration programme.
The results of Culture Ireland's grant funding are immediately measurable:
In 2016, Culture Ireland:
- supported 450 artistic projects across 60 countries
- reached a live audience of 4.5 million
- had 15.5 million online/tv viewers
- created 260 jobs
These artistic projects included 100 festivals, over 80 theatre/music tours, 80 exhibitions and art fairs, 123 film screenings, over 40 events in the Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris, and 70 performance in Irish Arts Centre, New York.
In 2016, Culture Ireland also:
- supported 160 international presenters to experience Irish work
- led six international promotional missions abroad
- supported 42 Irish bands to perform at 5 international showcases
- and enabled the translation of 99 Irish books into foreign languages
Culture Ireland's grant scheme is supported by Government of Ireland funding.