The Arts Council’s objective for its Creative Places programme is to invest in places (e.g. towns, villages, suburbs, rural places) that have had fewer opportunities to take part in the arts.

Creative Places should be inclusive and diverse, and their programmes rooted in socially engaged arts practice and community-development principles. Successful applicants will build on existing cultural strengths and be led by community participation and ideas. In particular, they will look to involve people who are often excluded.

The lead applicant for the Creative Places Award can be a local authority, an arts organisation or a community development organisation. 

Strand 1 and Strand 2 are open only to existing Creative Places Award recipients who have already been awarded three-year funding in the Creative Places programme.

Strand 3 is open to new applicants, such as local-authority arts offices, including Ealaín na Gaeltachta, arts organisations and community-development organisations (e.g. family-resource centres, agencies or organisations supporting specific groups).

The award has three strands:

Strand 1: Creative Places Phase 2

This strand is only open to applicants who have completed their Creative Places three-year award and are now entering into the next phase of their development. This award will be for one year, and applicants need only demonstrate their stakeholder engagement and programming plans for 2024. The maximum you can apply for is €70,000.

Strand 2: Creative Places Year 2 or Year 3

This strand is only open for those who have been awarded Creative Places three-year funding in 2022 or 2023 and are entering into Year 2 or Year 3. These applicants should refer to their letters of offer in 2022 and 2023 and apply for no more than the funding indicated that was awarded for Year 2 or Year 3.

Strand 3: Creative Places Research-and-Development Award

This strand is open to new applicants for a one-off Research and Development Award, which can be drawn down over eighteen months. The award covers research fees and consultation costs. The maximum you can apply for is €30,000. In 2024 it is anticipated that up to two awards will be made.

Note: from 2025, new applicants to the Creative Places programme for multi-annual funding must have completed this research-and-development strand (Strand 3) in this round of funding or in previous rounds of funding.

 For any other enquiries, please email Eimear.Kelleher@artscouncil.ie