Kildare County Council Arts Service invites applications for the following schemes:

Arts Act Grants Scheme
Applications are invited from:

Arts Education/ training projects
Bursary awards for individual Kildare based artists for the development of their work.
Assistance to groups/organisations/schools towards the cost of projects or events that stimulate public interest in and improve arts practice in the county.
Assistance to groups / organisations for the purchase of equipment

Cecil Day Lewis Literary Bursary Award
The annual Cecil Day Lewis Literary Bursary Award is open to both established and emerging writers and critics to enable
Research: towards the production of new writings
Formal or informal training: Participation in a professional or post-graduate course, mentoring, or other initiative, which will expand existing practice

Kildare Dance Bursary Award
Kildare County Council Arts Service proposes to offer a bursary Kildare based dancers and choreographers for further training, creative projects, choreographic research or professional development. Applicants should include the specifics of their proposed project in the application, outlining how it will develop their practice.

Tyrone Guthrie Residency Bursary Award
Two bursary awards will be made to artists from all fields born or living in Co Kildare to enable them to spend two weeks at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre at Annaghmakerrig, the artist’s workplace in Monaghan. Artists will be selected on the basis of their previous achievements and the project they intend to further during their working residence.

For information about the Tyrone Guthrie Centre see www.tyroneguthrie.ie

Drama League of Ireland Summer School Bursary Award
Kildare County Council Arts Service proposes to offer two bursary awards for the DLI Summer School Saturday 19th - Saturday 26th July 2008 at University Limerick.
For information about the Drama League of Ireland see www.dli.ie

Application forms and further information are available from:
Kildare County Arts Service, Riverbank, Main Street, Newbridge, Co Kildare
Contact:Eoghan Doyle Tel: 045-448318 Email: ekdoyle@kildarecoco.ie
Or Brenda Brady Tel: 045 – 448328 Email: bbrady@kildarecoco.ie

Closing date for receipt of applications for each scheme is
Thursday 20th March 2008.

Click on the name of the scheme to download more information and an application form in MS Word.

NOTE TO APPLICANTS

Applicants for all Kildare County Council Arts Service awards may like to consider the following comments from the 2007 adjudication panel before submitting their applications.

GENERAL FEEDBACK ON ARTS GRANTS APPLICATIONS FROM THE
2007 ASSESSING PANEL

The Arts Grants and Award opportunities were assessed independently in 2007 - by Arts Service staff in 2 neighbouring local authorities, with experience of the Arts Grants process. There were 67 applications for the Arts Act grants alone, with a total funding pool of € 20,550 (Budget allocation in 2008 is €21,000). Other award opportunities amounted to €7,050 in total. The Literary Awards were adjudicated by one of Irelands leading writers.

Given the total funding pool available, it was impossible to make awards of any significance to all recipients and therefore, considerable adjudication was required.

These awards were made based on

The written proposals (with particular attention on the supporting material provided),
Suitability of project within the Arts Awards scheme e.g. the scale of some of the projects were deemed to large for the total funding pool available; Capital building projects were also deemed not suitable for the scheme
Overall artistic intention
Viability of project, likelihood of project receiving funding elsewhere/ its dependency on Kildare County Council funding and
A balance between supporting professional, emerging and amateur artists.

Priority was given to first time applicants and to projects that were complementary to the aims outlined in ‘Making Inroads: An Arts Development Plan for Kildare County Council 2006-2011’. (Copies available from the Arts Service). Priority was given to Education and Community project applications that had an emphasis on developmental work.

It was noted that some of the applicants were seeking funding for projects that should be their core services/ activities, or could be considered as commercial ventures.

For your information, the adjudicators, in relation to the applications, noted the following general points.

Some applicants …..

Did not clearly state or describe the project or body of work for which they were seeking funding
Did not supply supporting information, as requested on application form i.e.

- Income and expenditure of the project (particularly in relation to matching, or other sources of funding)

- Supporting material from previous productions, shows, exhibitions, etc. (Theatre companies were particularly guilty of this)

- Cv of artist, or profile of organisers

- Photographs (visual artists were the worst offenders!! – it is not enough to state ‘will forward photographs, images if required’, or to assume that the adjudicator is familiar with your work)

A number of applications had no supporting material included with their application

Did not provide details/ profile of the participants involved
Did not include costings, or specify the amount of money requested, or which element of the project, specifically, that the funding was requested for
Listed ‘Masterclass/ Workshops with guest artists’, as the project, but did not name the artist, or sometimes the artform. An artist should have agreed, in advance of the application to carry out the work. The guest artists cv/ profile should be included with the application, with a breakdown of costings.
4 applications were received late, or the supporting material arrived late.

Please bear these comments in mind when applying for funding from Kildare County Council, or other agencies in the future.

Kildare County Council Arts Service

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Kildare County Council Arts Service Awards and Opportunities 2008