Announcing our Westmeath Creative Ireland Grants 2023

We are delighted to announce that applications are now open for our 2023 Westmeath Creative Ireland Grants. 

About Creative Ireland

The Creative Ireland Programme is an all-of-Government initiative to place creativity at the centre of public policy. It is guided by a vision that every person in Ireland will have the opportunity to realise their full creative potential. Continuous engagement with the arts and culture is enormously beneficial for building creative capacities. Enhancing wellbeing, culture and creativity are essential features of an innovative society where the ability to conceptualise is more important than knowledge. An important aspect of the Creative Ireland programme is its collaborative nature - between national and local government, and as part of this each local authority has prepared a Culture and Creativity strategy to support this work.

Priorities of Westmeath County Council’s Culture & Creativity Strategy

We invite applications that specifically address one or more of the following strategic priorities:

1. Creative Industries: cultivate opportunities that connect with local industries, creative practitioners and communities, to support cultural and creativity activities that drive economic returns locally.

• Diversity and Access: Facilitate the capacity of culture and creativity to innovate and collaborate in achieving priorities locally around social cohesion, greater health and wellbeing, with cognizance for the rural and urban makeup of the county, and the growing diversity of our communities.

• Creative Youth: empower young people through cultural and creative processes and strategies to realise their potential and enhance individual potential.

• Climate Action and Sustainability: Harness the power of culture and creativity to animate greater awareness, behavioural change and meaningful engagement on the profound environmental changes we are witnessing.

• Westmeath Culture Team: support capacity building of the Culture and Creativity Teams to lead on the development of collaborative strategies of scale, that benefit the county and in the broadest sense its creative communities.

About the Open Call

The Westmeath Creative Ireland Open Call is a county-wide call to community groups, organisations, venues, artists, writers, performers, archaeologists, historians, archivists and everyone involved in the culture and creative sectors. The call encourages the development high quality creative projects and programmes which enable groups and individuals to realise their full creative potential and develop and encourage greater access, knowledge and appreciation of the arts, culture and heritage.

How to Apply

Take a look at our Creative Ireland page for further information or download an application form.

Completed forms must be emailed to arts@westmeathcoco.ie on or before 12 noon, 8^th March 2023.*

*N.B. Eligible submissions will receive email confirmation. If you do not receive email confirmation it is your responsibility to email or phone us to ensure that your submission has been successfully received.

Westmeath Creative Ireland: Grants Information Session

We are delighted to announce that we will be hosting a Westmeath Creative Ireland Grant Information Session which will offer advice on applying for funds in 2023.