merrion street

The Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Josepha Madigan T.D., today announced that her Department’s new bursary scheme named the Markievicz Award will open for on-line applications via the Arts Council’s website on Tuesday 26 March 2019 and will close at 17:30 on Thursday 25 April 2019.  In advance of the opening date for applications Guidance to Applicants for the bursary scheme was also published on the website today.

From 26 March 2019 the scheme will be open via a public call to artists working in all arts genres supported by the Arts Council.  Given the importance of the language revival movement during the revolutionary period, and the Department’s particular responsibilities to support the Irish language and the Gaeltacht, one of the bursaries each year will be assigned to an artist working in the Gaeltacht and through the medium of the Irish language.  Applications from individuals or groups within culturally diverse communities and from people with disabilities are also encouraged under the scheme.

Awards under the scheme will be made each year to up to 5 artists/writers (either individual artists working alone or in collaboration with others) to a value of €20k per individual or group. The Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht is partnering with the Arts Council on the governance arrangements and the administration of the scheme and the first bursaries will be awarded in July 2019.

In November 2018 Minister Josepha Madigan announced the awards to commemorate the role of women in the historical period covered by the Decade of Centenaries and beyond.