Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Ms. Josepha Madigan, T.D. was joined by 4th class students of St. Patrick’s National School, Garristown and founder of Fighting Words Roddy Doyle for the announcement of the new Creative Ireland Programme Scheme 2018/2019 on Monday 14 May.

The Creative Ireland Programme is a culture-based wellbeing initiative which is guided by a vision that every person in Ireland will have the opportunity to realise their full creative potential. It is a five year all-of-Government Programme, from 2017 to 2022, to place creativity at the centre of public policy. In 2017, the Creative Ireland Programme supported a range of successful talks, workshops and events on culture, creativity and well-being, to encourage deeper understanding and appreciation of the role of creativity and to promote the new Programme’s objectives and underlying values.

This new Scheme aims to identify, support and collaborate with a range of strategic partners on projects which are genuinely innovative, will significantly add value and/or scale to the implementation of the Programme and which will help inform policy and/or cross-sectoral development in the area of culture, creativity and wellbeing. Grants of between €10,000 and €70,000* are available to individuals, organisations, community groups, colleges and cultural institutions, amongst others, from an overall fund of €500,000 for this year. Three themes have been identified as areas of priority for the Partnership Scheme – Individual and Collective Wellbeing, Innovation and Connecting Communities.

Speaking at the announcement of the Creative Ireland Programme Scheme 2018, Minister Madigan T.D., said: “The Creative Ireland Programme is an ambitious and ground-breaking initiative which aims to enhance individual and collective wellbeing through increased participation in creative activity. Much has been achieved in the first year of the Programme, from Culture Teams in every Local Authority finalizing their five-year Culture and Creativity plans to the cross-departmental implementation of the ambitious Creative Youth Plan, which is now well underway. We’re also looking forward to announcing details shortly of our first Cruinniú na nÓg, a national day of youthful creativity, which will unlock the creative potential of children and young people with events taking place in towns and communities across the country.

The new Creative Ireland Programme Fund will enable us to activate, enable and support genuinely ground-breaking and innovative initiatives, research projects and community programmes, which have creativity and wellbeing at their centre, and which will help inform and implement the vision of the Creative Ireland Programme. Through these partnerships, we want to encourage ambition, risk, innovation and excellence in the creative and cultural sectors by harnessing the incredible, talent and passion of our citizens and, by working together, across agencies, sectors and organisations, to achieve something truly remarkable.”

Roddy Doyle, author and founder of Fighting Words, said: “Fighting Words has been engaged with the Creative Ireland Programme since early 2017 and we have been working closely with them on the development and implementation of the Creative Youth Plan. As a pilot project for the new Creative Ireland Programme Scheme, we now have the opportunity to significantly scale up and increase access, at a national level, for children and adults to unlock the power of their own imaginations and to become resilient, creative and successful shapers of their own lives.”

Details and application forms for the Creative Ireland Programme Scheme 2018/2019 are available at creative.ireland.ie. Deadline for receipt of application forms is midnight Friday 8 June 2018.

*The Department retains the right to amend the funding thresholds.

The Creative Ireland Programme is an all of Government five-year initiative, from 2017 to 2022, which places creativity at the centre of public policy. It is built around five pillars: Enabling the Creative Potential of Every Child; Enabling Creativity in Every Community; Investing in our Creative and Cultural Infrastructure; Ireland as a Centre of Excellence in Media Production; Unifying our Global Reputation. Further information on Creative Ireland is available at creative.ireland.ie or on Facebook and Twitter @creativeirl.