2020 AIC Scheme Bursaries – Cultural Diversity and Human Rights

2020 marks ten years since the Artist in the Community (AIC) Scheme Bursary award was inaugurated. We are pleased to announce that this year, we will award two AIC Scheme bursary awards.

The first will focus on the theme of Collaborative Arts and Cultural Diversity, and specifically aims to support an artist from a minority ethnic or migrant background. This bursary, offered in partnership with the Irish Refugee Council, closes for applications on the 17^th August. See full details here.

The second bursary to be offered in 2020 will take as its focus Collaborative Arts and Human Rights. Full details and closing date for this bursary will be published in September.

The 2020 Bursaries in Collaborative Arts and Cultural Diversity and Collaborative Arts and Human Rights reflect Create’s belief that by working together, artists and communities can purposefully explore how collaborative arts engage in distinct, relevant and powerful ways with the urgent social, cultural and political issues of our times. Recent weeks have seen unprecedented mobilisation and reaction to human rights violations. Create believes that arts practice plays a key role in advancing the cause of equality, a belief reflected in the Arts Council’s Equality, Human Rights and Diversity policy of 2019.

The objective of the Artist in the Community Scheme Bursary Award is to support individual professional artists whose practice centres on collaboration with individuals or groups (non-arts professionals). The AIC Bursary Award 2020: Collaborative Arts and Cultural Diversity specifically aims to support individual professional artists from a minority ethnic or migrant background working in collaborative socially engaged arts practice.

The purpose of the award is to support and nurture professional arts practice; it is specifically aimed at an artist with a track record of working collaboratively with communities of place or interest. The bursary of €10,000 provides the selected artist with time and resources to carry out research and to reflect on their practice. More particularly, it allows the artist to consider key questions associated with cultural diversity using collaborative methodologies.

The AIC Scheme Bursary Award is aimed at an artist who:

• Works collaboratively with individuals and groups (non-arts professionals) in the making and interpreting of art
• Considers and prioritise the quality of engagement at all stages – e.g. in the planning, making and evaluation of work
• Demonstrates a clear commitment to artistic outcomes

The award aims to support professional artists to develop their collaborative arts practice.