Exciting changes for Arts and Disability Connect 2021

The Arts Council and Arts & Disability Ireland are delighted to announce exciting changes for Arts and Disability Connect this year.

Funding has been increased to €116,000 in 2021 which will be awarded to artists with disabilities through the scheme.

Round 1 opens Tuesday 06 April.
Deadline is Monday 24 May, 2021 at 4pm.
Applicants will be told the outcome by July.

Round 2 opens Monday 30 August.
Deadline is Monday 18 October, 2021 at 4pm.
Applicants will be told the outcome by December.

“This is a significant leap forward in funding opportunities for artists with disabilities. It is an opportunity to dream bigger, collaborate more broadly and engage wider audiences. I eagerly await artists’ creativity and ambition moving to the next level”. Pádraig Naughton, Executive Director, Arts & Disability Ireland.

The Arts and Disability Connect scheme is designed to support artists with disabilities to be ambitious, to develop their practice and to connect with arts organisations and arts professionals in Ireland.

Artists can apply for 4 different awards: New Work €15,000, Research and Development €5,000, Mentoring €3,000 and Training €1,000.

We are thrilled to announce that we are increasing the award amounts available for New Work to €15,000 and Mentoring to €3,000. This will give artists an opportunity to think even bigger than before.

We have created a new Research and Development award of €5,000. This award is for mid-career and established artists who want time and resources to think, research, reflect and critically engage with their practice. It can be used to ‘buy time’, develop new relationships with arts partners in order to submit a New Work application in the future or to develop other strategic partnerships.

A new addition to Arts and Disability Connect this year will be Easy Read information describing the scheme and how funding decisions are made.

We will announce a series of online information sessions and details about how people can book one-to-one support for their applications soon.

Application forms, guidelines, Easy Read information and dates for information sessions in round 1 will be available on our website from Tuesday 06 April at www.adiarts.ie/connect.