Micro Arts Fund 2025: Now Open
Deadline for submissions: 5pm, Wednesday, 7th May 2025.
Building on the success of our previous micro arts fund, Cumas Ceantar are delighted to open a call for the Ciste Beag Ealaíona 2025 which will help create further opportunities for artists, community groups and for individuals to grow their ideas, to develop arts projects and to imagine new opportunities for community integration and connection.
Cumas Ceantar/Creative Places Ciste Beag Ealaíona 2025
This micro fund for the socially engaged arts will support the development and growth of innovative, creative, artistic and cultural community-focused arts projects that support the connection and engagement of the people of Uíbh Ráthach with each other and with their area.
This fund is now open, with a total sum of €20,000 available. Applications can be submitted for a minimum amount of €250 and a maximum amount of €2,000, depending on your needs and ambitions for the work. We reserve the right not to grant funding should applications not fit the brief.
The award will be paid in two parts: 50% at the beginning and 50% upon completion. A report form will be required at the conclusion of the project. Exceptions to the payment schedule may be made at the discretion of the panel, depending on the nature of the project.
Who is it for?
In this phase of our Micro Fund, we especially welcome applications from those working with community groups to increase arts activity, cultivate shared experiences, and create meaningful engagement. This fund can support the development of an existing project ready for its next stage or help your community group launch something new—a small event, workshop, or creative activity. It can facilitate collaboration with an artist or creative practitioner, enabling your group to engage with external expertise, access mentorship, and secure essential materials or equipment. Whether your idea is new or building on existing work, your application should clearly outline how this fund will help develop, sustain, and expand it.
Collaborating with a community group is not essential; however, priority will be given to applications that include a community group in the proposal. Applicants must have permission from the community group and provide the name and contact information of a lead contact from the group.
We also particularly welcome projects that foreground the Irish language.
Who should apply?
This Ciste Beag Ealaíona is for artists, arts activists, social and community groups who live in or work in the Kells to Castlecove catchment area. It is for projects which will happen here, for the benefit of the people of this peninsula. This fund is ideal for emerging or established groups, or for creatives who want to try something new. Community is at the heart of Creative Places so ideas must respond to and involve local people’s input.
How to apply:
Read the application form which includes guidelines and the requirements for application.
Consider your idea and what you need to realise or develop it.
Contact the coordinator Síomha Brock at ealain@comhchoiste.ie if you have any queries regarding this fund.
Complete the application form
Send completed applications to: ealain@comhchoiste.ie before 5pm 7th May 2025.
Selection process
Applications will be considered and the selection will be made by a panel of representatives from Creative Places, an artist and a local representative.
About Cumas Ceantar Uíbh Ráthach
The Uíbh Ráthach Gaeltacht and its environs has been awarded a Creative Places award from the Arts Council. The three year developmental programme for socially engaged arts began in January 2024 and will continue until January 2027. Over this period we will be working with local artists and local communities to create a supportive, enriching and self-sustaining arts culture for all the people of the Uíbh Ráthach area.
In 2023, while we were in our Cumas Ceantar R&D phase, we opened the Ciste Beag Ealaíona to create opportunities for local people to grow new ideas and to develop creative projects which could be of benefit to all the people of the peninsula. Following community demand, In 2024 we opened the Fund again. There was a fantastic community-wide response, with Cumas Ceantar ultimately supporting a wide range of events including poetry in schools, ceramic workshops, two art exhibitions, a new spoken word festival, boat building workshops, a beach art event, open mic nights, a community music event and the first steps in a peninsula wide rural music trail - amongst others!
The deadline for submission is 5pm, Wednesday 7th May 2025.