Deontais Ealaíon Chomhairle Cathrach & Contae Phort Láirge
Waterford City & County Council Arts Grants
Deadline: Monday October 1st – 4pm.
Waterford City & County Council has allocated significant funding for the provision of Arts Practice, Arts Venues and Arts Festivals Grants as part of its support for the development of the arts in the City and County in 2019.

Detailed below are the Arts Practice Grants and Arts Venue Grants. The arts grants are an essential part of the Waterford City and County Arts Strategy 2016 – 2021 – “A Shared Vision for Waterford Arts” and follow closely the relevant actions under its three themes:
- Participation & Access
- Support for Artists
- Identity and Place
We suggest you read the strategy and see where your proposed project would sit with it.
The Arts Practice grants structure complies with Section 6 of the 2003 Arts Act. These grants are for funding towards arts projects and programmes which are complementary to the following objectives:
- Stimulating public interest in the Arts
- Promoting knowledge, appreciation and practice of the arts, or
- Improving standards in the arts
In the Act, the arts are defined as painting, sculpture, architecture, music, film, drama, dance, literature, design in industry, the fine arts and applied arts generally.
The Arts Practice grants are adjudicated through a competitive process. Application forms are available online from Friday August 24th 2018 with a closing date of Monday October 1st 2018 at 4pm.
The five Arts Act grants available under this application are:
• Voluntary/Amateur Grants
• Professional Project Grants
• Rural Artist’s Grants
• Playwright & Producer Team
• Screenwriter & Producer Team
APPLICATION PROCESS
For the purposes of clarity we are working on the following assumptions:
- Voluntary/Amateur: Groups or Individuals that engage in an arts activity as a pastime or for the love of the artform rather than as a profession.
- Professional: Companies/Individuals/Collectives who engage in an arts activity for a source of livelihood and who are the principal personnel in the creative process resulting in a work of art.
- Arts Organisations: A not-for-profit professional arts organisation that either concentrates on professional arts activities (e.g. Theatre, Film) or utilises professional arts practise in a community or social setting (e.g. Youth Arts, Arts in Health).
Prior to application please read the 2019 Arts Grants Guidelines. You will soon also be able to download a short illustrated guide to applying for a grant.
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Waterford City & County Council invites applications under the following programmes:
Voluntary/Amateur Arts Grants
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An Evening concert by The Barrack Street Band These grants are for the Voluntary/Amateur strata and would include, for example, Marching Bands, Amateur Drama Organisations, secular Choirs, Amateur Visual Arts Cooperatives, Volunteer Concert providers, Amateur Writing Groups etc. These grants are for specific artistic projects to bring them into the public domain with preference being given to:
- those who employ professional artists/workers/technicians to increase the quality of output
- those utilising local creative inputs (such as a new play by a local writer)
- those that have a strong track record for excellence
- projects that create linkages with the City and County
Please note that if you are a voluntary/amateur theatre group please read the 2019 Drama Indicatives (as this is a competitive process there is no guarantee of funding). Please note also that these grants are not for administration or for events that happened in the past. (Read the 2019 Guidelines before applying.)
Grant Application form
(In the 1st dropbox select “Voluntary/Amateur”.
In the 3rd box also select Voluntary/Amateur)
Professional Project Grants
These grants are for the Professional arts strata and would include professional arts organisations, arts service companies, professional artist and professional arts collaborations. These grants are for specific artistic projects to bring them into the public domain. Preference being given to:
- new creative products
- new and emerging art forms and practices
- collaborative projects
- projects that create linkages with the County and City
Please note these grants are not for administration or for events that happened in the past. If the proposal is based on theatre activity read the 2019 Drama Indicatives (Also read the 2019 Arts Grants Guidelines before applying).
Grant Application form
(In the 1st dropbox select either “Professional Collective” or “Arts Organisation”.
In the 3rd box select “Professional Project Grant”)
Rural Artist’s grants
The development of a Rural Arts is to ensure accessibility to the arts for artists and audiences. It was identified as a specific need in the Waterford City & County Arts Strategy 2016 -2021.
It is now proposed under this grants scheme to invite proposals that will fulfil that obligation.
Innovative projects in any art form will be considered. Submissions from professional arts collectives/groups are encouraged.
Projects focusing on the ongoing or regular output of existing groups cannot be considered under this scheme.
(2019 Arts Grants Guidelines).
Grant Application form
(In the 1st dropbox select either “Professional Collective” or Other and fill in the box below it.
In the 3rd box select “Rural Artist’s Grant”)
Playwright & Producer Team Grants (Theatre)

This two stage grant scheme is part of the Theatre Programme of the Arts Service. We see this as a partnership between a Playwright and a Producer and Waterford City & County Council with the hope of encouraging great drama and outside finances.
The scheme is based on three tenets:
- To build up a new cannon of South East plays
- To enable and empower South East playwrights
- To encourage new arts entrepreneurs (producers)
For the first part (worth up to €1,500) applicants are invited to submit:
- A sample scene of a new work
- A detailed synopsis and plot
- Theme/s
- A list of characters (with notes)
- Basic stage setting
- A relevant CV outlining previous creative work
- An agreement with a person or group who will produce including a work timeline for the completion of the script
These applications will be judged, on their merits, by a theatre practitioner panel where preference will be given to plays based in Waterford or the Southeast, or that cover issues pertinent to Waterford or the Southeast. Up to three scripts will be commissioned to the value of €1,500 each – payment on receipt of the finished script.
For the second part, worth up to €1,500, following the completion of the script and a meeting convened with the Arts Officer responsible for Theatre, the creative team must supply:
- a rehearsed reading planned in consultation with the Arts Service (we encourage group readings so we can ask venue managers to attend)
- an exercise consisting of a budgeted and costed proposal for a rehearsal schedule leading towards a budget and costing exercise for a six day run
- proposed marketing plan including budget and schedule
Please note:
- Waterford City & County Council, through its Arts Service, reserves the right to 1% of Royalties from plays produced through this scheme (only if requested). This is for the purpose of publishing a compendium of plays from the scheme at a later date.
- Waterford City & County Council, through its Arts Service, reserves the right to publish plays that have gone through this scheme. All performance production rights will remain with the Playwright. By applying for this grant you are agreeing to these clauses.
Grant Application form
(In the 1st dropbox select “Professional Collective”.
In the 3rd box select “Playwright / Producer team”)
Screenwriter & Producer Team Grant (Film)

This is a two stage grant scheme – a partnership between a Screenwriter and a Producer and Waterford City & County Council with the hope of making great films and encouraging further finances towards the project.
The scheme is based on four tenets:
- To build up a new cannon of South East films
- To encourage local film production
- To enable and empower South East Screenwriters
- To encourage new arts entrepreneurs (producers)
For the first part applicants must submit along with their application:
- A maximum three sentence ‘Pitch’
- A detailed synopsis and plot
- Theme/s
- A list of characters (with notes)
- Basic location settings
- Relevant CVs outlining previous creative work
- An agreement with a person or group who will produce including a work timeline for the completion of the script
- Availability for a phone or face-to-face interview
Up to five applicants will then be chosen to submit their full screenplay for which they will be awarded €250 each.
The five applicants will then be invited to compete for three grants worth €3,500 each plus a Waterford FilmLAB/Waterford Film Centre bursary that includes 10 days free rental of equipment and use of the offline editing suite for 7 days.
For this WC&CC Arts Service will expect:
- A detailed budget including all payments and other contributions and ‘in-kind’ sponsorship
- Locations and Set-Ups
- Basic Storyboards
- Shooting script
- A list of equipment required
- Preferred Timeline (this must also include dates for the drawdown of the grant)
Following this three productions may be chosen. Payment will be given on completion of the film or in agreed stages.
Click the link for further information regarding 2019 Terms and Conditions Screenwriter Producer Team, formats and accreditation.
Grant Application form
(In the 1st dropbox select “Professional Collective”.
In the 3rd box select “Screenwriter / Producer team”)
Venues
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The stage of the Theatre Royal
Waterford City & County Council is proud of the quality of the venues it has helped develop. Whilst the primary focus of these buildings relates to performance and exhibition of finished work, the venue should also be a place where new work can originate. Funded venues tend to be places that have continuous staffing whether their performance/exhibition areas are open or not. Council grant-funded venues will be expected to maximise the use of scarce resources and to foster the development of new, accessible arts projects as well experimental projects.
This year the Council has changed the way people apply for grant aid. It is largely in line with the Arts Council process. Council invites applications from developed venues for artistic purposes. The application form is an MS Document and must be returned as an MS Document. A PDF/Scan/Photo will NOT suffice.
There are five parts to the Venues Funding application:
• The application form
• Activity Budget Forms
• AAR (2019 Arts Activities)
• A one page general report of your 2018 activities (that would have been outlined in your 2019 application form) mentioning any extraordinary issues.
• Supporting material, including your Critical Friends Report, which you gather and upload or deliver to the Customer Services Desk, Bailey’s New Street, Waterford City marked VENUE GRANT APPLICATION FTAO Conor Nolan.
Please ensure that no single item is larger than 3Mb.
Please note that as this is a new format and vastly different from previous applications there may be some teething problems. So give yourself plenty of time. Contact Conor Nolan up to 4pm on September 28th if there is a problem you can’t solve.
- WCCC Venue Funding Application 2019
- Activity Budget Form (one to be filled out per activity)
- AAR for WCCC Arts and Culture Venues
- Audience_Guidance_Funding 2019 (for calculating audiences)
Download all documents, fill them in, gather all relevant additional information and email it back to conornolan @ waterfordcouncil.ie
Send any other support documents that can’t be scanned to: Mr Conor Nolan, Arts Officer, Waterford City & County Council, C/O Customer Care Desk, Bailey’s New Street, Waterford.
DEADLINE OCTOBER 1st, 4PM.
Please tell us if you are having problems with this page or with any of the pages directly connected to the Online Grant Applications. Fill in the form bellow and we will do our best to get back to you within 24 hours. Alternatively you can ring 0761102983 during office hours.
If you have a query or problems with the application form please fill in the details below. We should be back to you within 48 hours at the latest.