Cultural Events and Festivals

The Young People's Musical Theatre scheme will award £200,000 in grants aimed at encouraging young people to take part in musical theatre.

SEUPB is inviting applications for operations which will support the development of the Creative Industries sector.  The call is being made under the Enterprise Theme of Priority 1.1 (Co-operation for a more prosperous cross-border region) of the Cross-Border European Territorial Co-operation Programme INTERREG IVA.

Connections through Culture is the British Council’s new programme to provoke and support collaborative working between the UK and India in the arts. It’s focused on the arts industry itself – producers, festivals, curators, arts organisations and companies – and aims to build strong, sustainable relationships between organisations in the two countries.

The Arts Council of Northern Ireland has re-opened three funding scheme with deadlines in June for applications to be received.

These are:

Musical Instruments for Bands

This programme is designed to increase the quality of music-making in the community by helping bands to replace worn-out instruments and purchase new instruments. Deadline 3 June 2010

Visiting Arts will be attending our Meet the Funder Fair on 25 January 2010 to provide an information stand on the European Union Culture Programme.

We are pleased to add Visiting Arts to the line-up of funders participating in the event.

A guide is now available to download on the European Culture Programme which helpfully explains the activities that can be funded by this lesser known European Union Programme.

The arts are one of the key spending areas for the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure. However, over recent years there has been a growing concern at the relatively low levels of funding to the arts in Northern Ireland as compared to other countries and regions.

• Community Festivals fund

The Belfast Community Festivals Fund aims to support the positive work of community festivals. Grants will range from £2,500 with a maximum grant amount of £10,000.

In October 2009 the Baring Foundation will launch a new funding programme giving core costs grants to arts organisations in the UK working with older people.

The Creative Legacies Programme (funded through Peace III) is now open to community and arts organisations in Belfast. The deadline has been extended to 10 July 2009.