€1.46m awarded to arts and culture projects by Minister Martin

Minister for Tourism, Culture and Arts, Catherine Martin TD has today announced awards in capital grants of over €1.46m to eleven arts and culture organisations for upgrading and development of their facilities. 

This funding is provided under Stream B of the Cultural Capital Scheme 2019-2022 that is part of an overall €4.7m capital investment scheme in the arts and culture infrastructure around the country.

In a statement, the Minister’s department said: “In line with the Government’s action on climate change, this scheme prioritises projects that reduce an organisation’s carbon footprint that will make a real and positive impact on the environment.

“Projects that provide additional capacity for artists and artistic production particularly in arts centres will also be favoured.

“This new scheme which has four separate streams of funding, builds on the success of the former Arts and Culture Capital Scheme 2016-2018.”

Speaking today, Minister Martin said: “I am delighted to be in a position to award this funding today to these arts and culture organisations.

“This capital scheme prioritises projects that reduce an organisation’s carbon footprint.

“This is in line with the Government’s action on climate change and I’m delighted that the funding for some of these projects will make a real and positive impact on the environment.

“Projects that provide additional capacity for artists and artistic production particularly in arts centres were also favoured.

“This investment at a range of different facilities including arts centres, theatres, galleries, museums, as well as artists’ studios and creative spaces aims to improve the audience and creative experience while upgrading the facilities.

“This overall funding package will ensure past investment in these arts and cultural centres is protected and sustained.

“The funding being announced today is in addition to my earlier allocations of funding under this scheme in December together with funding to visual artist workspaces and Stream D funding which is specifically for capital adaptations or equipment necessary to assist arts organisations in re-opening safely after COVID-19.

“Today’s announcement will bring the total awarded under this scheme to date to almost €2.5m.

“Further funding under this scheme will follow in due course.

“I wish these arts and culture facilities continued success in the future.”

Out of the 11 projects, three are based in Dublin.

These are the Alfred Beit Foundation (€80,000) which protects and promotes fine arts in Ireland, the Axis Centre in Ballymun (€73,959) which is a community resource for the arts in the area, and the Royal Hibernian Academy (€74,767), an arts institution in Dublin 2.