Kildare County Council Arts Service welcomes applications from individual artists and/or collectives in any artform to the Kildare Arts Service First Fortnight Award 2025. The award, in collaboration with
First Fortnight and supported by the HSE, aims to support the development and presentation of new work that provokes conversation around mental health and promotes mental health awareness and wellbeing.
The Kildare Arts Service First Fortnight Award will provide a grant of €4,000 towards the development and/or presentation of new work. The recipient(s) of the award will be included as part of Kildare’s First Fortnight Festival programme of events in January 2026.
Kildare County Council Arts Service is committed to supporting health and wellbeing through engagement and participation in the arts and developing opportunities for professional development. Kildare’s Arts, Health and Wellbeing programme supports public engagement, provides opportunities for artists working in this area, and aims to promote artistic ambition and inclusive participation.
Applications to this award are welcome from individual artists and/or collectives in any artform from or currently residing in County Kildare, with ideas for new or ‘in development’ projects that provoke conversation around mental health and promote mental health awareness and wellbeing.
We welcome applicants who represent the diversity of Irish society. We encourage applications from all areas of the community regardless of your gender, sexual orientation, civil or family status, religion, age, disability, race or membership of the Traveller Community, or socio-economic background.
We welcome applications from artists whose first language is not English.
Although not an obligatory requirement, applicants to all grants offered by Kildare County Council Arts Service might consider demonstrating how their activity addresses the themes of climate change and climate action.
Although not an obligatory requirement, applicants to all grants offered by Kildare County Council Arts Service might consider demonstrating how their activity addresses the themes of inclusivity, equality and cultural diversity.
Kildare County Council is committed to fair pay and a policy to Pay the Artist. Please refer to the Arts Council's policy on
Paying the Artist.
Your attention is also drawn to
safetocreate.ie, where you will find more information about the Safe to Create Dignity at Work programme which aims to impact change on the culture and practices of the arts sector in Ireland to provide safer working conditions for artists and arts workers.
Access Support
You can apply for additional costs if there are access needs relating to your application. These can be personal access costs or costs for making your work accessible to others. Personal access costs might for example include costs towards additional time needed to complete your project or
additional assistance required to deliver your proposed project. Costs for making your work accessible to others might include having an ISL interpreter, using an audio description service, making your content compatible with screen readers or producing materials in other formats such as in Braille or audio. Any such requirements should be outlined in your application and a breakdown of costs should be provided within your budget. These costs may be above the maximum award amount for this grant (up to 20% of the award available).
About First Fortnight
First Fortnight is Ireland’s Mental Health Arts & Culture Festival. First Fortnight challenges mental health prejudice and stigma through arts and cultural action and programmes events that create spaces for unscripted conversations around mental health.
Application deadline
Applications will only be accepted via the online application form.
Applications must be submitted before the deadline at 12pm Friday 28th February 2025.
Applications submitted after the deadline will not be accepted.
We suggest that applicants try to submit their application form early in case of technical difficulties. Should they arise, please email arts@kildarecoco.ie and we will endeavour to respond as soon as possible.
Supporting Material
It is advantageous to include supporting material that enhances your application. Applicants should not assume that the independent assessment panel are familiar with your work or your previous funding history. The panel will use the supporting material to get a better understanding of the track record of your creative collaborator(s) and the feasibility of your proposal.
Information Session
Kildare County Council Arts Service will host a number of Information Sessions in locations throughout the county about applying for arts grants and bursary awards with Kildare County Council. Sessions will be of particular interest to individual artists, art collectives, community groups, youth groups and schools who intend to apply for Arts Grants from Kildare County Council in 2025.
Information Sessions:
Please note that information imparted at each session will be the same - there is no need to register to attend all 3 sessions. All are welcome to attend this FREE session, but booking is recommended.
If you need help to complete and submit your application we want to hear from you. Please email or call the Arts Service team at least three weeks before the award deadline, or as early as possible, to give us time to assist you. Email: arts@kildarecoco.ie / Tel: 045 980872.
- Applications will be accepted via the official online application system only.
- Applications are welcome from individual artists and/or collectives in any artforms currently residing or from County Kildare.
- The lead artists/applicants must be over 18 years of age.
- All recipients of grant assistance under the scheme for projects involving children or young people must have appropriate policies in place as regards Child Protection.
- Kildare County Council Arts Service will require confirmation that the appropriate insurance policies and Health and Safety Procedures are in place.
Ineligible applications:
- Applications submitted after the deadline.
- Activities that do not meet the purpose of the award.
- Applicants requesting assistance in respect of commercial activities.
- Proposals for work in retrospect.
- Applications from employees of Kildare County Council. These individuals may not apply as lead applicants, however in certain circumstances can be involved as creative collaborators / advisors / participants in proposals submitted by a third party.
- Activities better suited to others awards and/or schemes offered by the county council.
- Activities that could be better supported by other public agency supports for example Arts Council, Creative Ireland, Culture Ireland, Design & Crafts Council Ireland, Music Generation.
Steps to complete and submit your application form
Here we have outlined the steps you will take to complete and submit your application for funding for Arts Grants and what happens next.
- Read the call out and eligibility notes
- Click Apply and Register
- Create a new Profile or review your existing details. Please include a valid email address with your application – this will be used for all future correspondence relating to your application.
- Check your email to confirm your registration
- Complete the online application form. This form can be saved in draft for you to review and edit at a later time.
- Upload Supporting Material
- Send application form
- Verify email address (check your email for a copy)*
- Submit application
*Note regarding verification. If you do not receive verification email, it may have been blocked by your mail host and you may need to whitelist our address.
How to Whitelist an Email Address
Open Gmail. In the upper-right corner, select the Settings (gear) icon. From the menu, choose Settings .
Select Filters and Blocked Addresses .
Select Create a new filter . If you already have many filters, you'll have to scroll down to find this link.
A dialog box appears. In the From field, type the email address you want to whitelist. Be sure to type the full email address, like example@yahoo ...
At the bottom of the dialog box, select Create filter.
On the next screen, tell Gmail what to do with the email address or domain you just indicated. To do so, select Never send it to Spam .
Assessment and Decision
- Applications will be assessed by an independent assessment panel.
- Applications are assessed in a competitive context and with consideration of the application form and the supporting materials submitted. Criteria for consideration at assessment will include artistic ambition; meeting the purpose/aims of the award; benefit of the proposal/arts activity to the county; feasibility. Consideration is also given to the artform(s) supported and the Arts Service’s remit to support the arts countywide.
- Must Fund: In the view of the assessment panel, the application is deemed to have fully met the criteria for the award and merits funding on that basis.
- Should Fund: In the view of the assessment panel, the application is deemed to have met the criteria to an extent sufficient to merit funding should resources allow.
- Could Fund: In the view of the assessment panel, the application is deemed to have met the criteria, but to a lesser extent within the competitive context than other applications.
- Not Shortlisted to Fund: In the view of the assessment panel, the application is deemed to have not met the criteria to an extent sufficient to merit funding.
- All applicants will be advised of panel's decision by email.
- The Arts Service is not in a position to provide feedback on individual applications.
- Grant aid provided by Kildare County Council must be acknowledged in all publicity material associated with the project. Kildare County Council reserves the right to publicise the awarding of the Arts Act Grants. Failure to acknowledge Kildare County Council appropriately may deem the grant invalid and grant aid received may need to be refunded to Kildare County Council.
- All successful applications will receive a copy of Kildare County Council logos, along with the document ‘Requirements for acknowledging Kildare County Council funding’ via email.
- If your application is successful, you will be required to submit a short report/update at the end of the project or before 31st October 2025, whether the project has been completed or not. An invitation to submit a report will be communicated to grant recipients in early autumn 2025. Failure to submit a report may deem the grant invalid and grant aid received may need to be refunded to Kildare County Council.
- The payment of a grant is not taken as an indication that the equivalent of any grant will be made to the organiser on another occasion.