Seven arts projects have recently been awarded funding totalling over £33,000 as part of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland’s Small Grants funding programme.
The money will be used to support arts initiatives in communities across Northern Ireland, including projects in Belfast, Castlewellan, Portaferry, Draperstown, Castlewellan, and the East Antrim Coast.
Supported through National Lottery funds, the Small Grants Programme is designed to encourage organisations in Northern Ireland to get more people to engage with the arts through creative, community-based projects. Grants are awarded by the Arts Council on a monthly basis and organisations can apply for up to £10,000 to support projects in any art form, including music, drama, dance, literature, visual, and participatory arts.
Funding awarded through the Arts Council of Northern Ireland’s Small Grant’s Programme will help to support the following projects:
Cairncastle Ulster Scots Cultural Group, awarded £5,569 for Ciarncastle Annual Ulster Scots Bluegrass and Folk Festival
The Ulster Scots festival will include a musical evenings, workshops, dance events and musical bus trips. Events will showcase traditional Scottish, Irish, country and Bluegrass music with international bands, rejuvenating songs and music lost over the years. Funding provided through the Arts Council’s National Lottery funds will also help support dance and musical classes from May to January.
Friends of Portaferry Presbyterian Church, awarded £7,400 for Festivards
Festivards is a four day music festival at Portico. The festival will run from Friday 26th - Mon 29th May 2017. It opens with a performance by Richard Hills, an internationally recognised cinema organ exponent as well as a concert organist: in the second half of his show he will accompany Hitchcock's "The Manxman". Highlights of the festival include a BBC Radio 3 invitation concert on Sunday featuring the Calidore Quartet. This is followed by a performance by Finghin Collins (piano), returning for the third time to Portico. In the evening four NI Opera Young Artists will perform a programme, "Love, Lust and Loss", in association with Ards and North Down Borough Council.
Community Arts Partnership, awarded £2,900 for equipment for the Arts Resource Centre (The ARC)
The Community Arts Partnership recently moved premises to a new venue, The Arts Resource Centre (The ARC), which provides those in the community with a space to practice community arts.
The grant awarded from the Arts Council’s Small Grants Programme will be used to purchase equipment for its rehearsal and recording studio, to create an exhibition space in the performance café, a projector for film screenings and display units to showcase artisan products.
St Malachy’s GAA Club Castlewellan, awarded £5,250 for Castlewellan community theatre workshop and production of The Field
The funding awarded through the Arts Council of Northern Ireland’s Small Grants Programme will be used to support an amateur community production of John B Keane's "The Field".
It will include a 10 week workshop for volunteers led by an experienced producer, concluding with two performances for the local community to attend.
Tumble Circus, awarded £5,110 for Circus at the MAC
Tumble Circus will spend four days (23-26 May 2017) rehearsing and devising a new circus show aimed for families and to be performed in the MAC during their cabaret season, 27-28 May 2017. The show will be directed by Sophie Bothwick and include highly skilled and accomplished circus performers (five local circus performers and one international).
The show will be in a cabaret format and using Tumble Circus's style of contemporary circus, clown and theatre to establish a unique style of cabaret suited and inspired by the cultural landscape of Northern Ireland and influences from current political events and cultural movements.
Roisin McDonough, Chief Executive of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, commented: “The Small Grants Programme is supporting arts projects in communities across Northern Ireland, creating more opportunities for people to engage with the arts, from grassroots level projects to professional productions.
“Made possible thanks to the money raised for good causes through the Arts Council’s National Lottery funds, this valuable programme is supporting a huge variety of high quality arts projects, proving that sometimes a small investment can have a tremendous impact.”
Funding from the Small Grants Programme is awarded to organisations by the Arts Council on a monthly basis. Application forms and guidance notes are available to download here.
http://artscouncil-ni.org/news/33000-awarded-in-april-to-support-community-based-arts-projects