A new scheme for women artists will see up to five artists/writers receive a bursary of up to €20,000 each year.
Awards under the ‘Markievicz bursaries’ will be made each year to up to five artists/writers working alone or in collaboration with others to a maximum value of €20,000 per individual or group.
The Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht will partner with the Arts Council on the governance arrangements and the administration of the scheme, which will open for submissions from mid-January to mid-February with bursaries to be awarded in May 2019.
Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Josepha Madigan said, “On this the 100th anniversary of the enactment of legislation to allow women to stand in general elections, I am pleased to announce a new scheme that both honours Countess Constance de Markievicz – herself an artist – and provides support for female artists from all backgrounds and genres in producing new work that reflects on the role of women in the period covered by the centenary commemorations and beyond.”
The scheme will be open via a public call to female 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 will also be encouraged under the scheme.
