Irish artists can apply to award offering €25k bursaries from this week

The Decade of Centenaries Markievicz Award artists bursary scheme for 2023 will be open to applications from next week. 

That's according to the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Catherine Martin TD, who today (January 13) announced the Arts Council's artists portal will open to applications from between Tuesday January 17 and 5.30pm on Thursday February 16. 

The Minister distributes awards under the scheme each year to up to 10 artists (either artists working alone or in collaboration with others) to a value of €25,000 per individual or group. 

The award recipients for 2023 will be announced in April this year.

Speaking about the awards, Minister Martin said, "The Markievicz Award continues to both honour Constance de Markievicz – herself an artist – and to provide support for artists from all backgrounds and genres in producing new work that reflects on the role of women in the period covered by the centenary commemorations and beyond.

"The Award is now in its fifth year and 32 artists across diverse genres have benefited from the €700,000 awarded under the scheme to date. Audiences in turn have benefitted from the work produced and there’s much more to come in the years ahead." 

Given the importance of the Irish language revival movement during the revolutionary period, and the Department’s ongoing and particular responsibilities to support the Irish language and the Gaeltacht, one of the awards will be assigned to an artist working in the Gaeltacht and through the medium of the Irish language, subject to them achieving awardable standard. 

Applications from individuals or groups within culturally diverse communities and from people with disabilities are also encouraged under the scheme. 

To register and access the portal, click here.