AIC Scheme Artist Mentoring Award 2025

Create invites applications from collaborative, socially engaged artists, or artists transitioning into collaborative, socially engaged arts, who wish to avail of a focused period of mentorship to develop and consolidate their practice.

The Mentoring Award is funded through the Artist in the Community Scheme (AIC), managed by Create on a devolved basis for The Arts Council. The AIC Scheme is a primary vehicle for collaborative socially engaged arts practice in Ireland.

The closing date for applications is 5pm, Tuesday 6^th May 2025

About the Mentoring Award

The Mentoring Award is part of a suite of offerings under the Artist in the Community Scheme (AIC). It aims to offer capacity building and arts practice development for collaborative socially engaged artists. Through the Mentoring Award, artists from Create’s Artist Mentor Panel will be available as mentors. There will be five artist mentors and five artist mentees.

This opportunity is for emerging collaborative, socially engaged artists or artists who have a midcareer/established individual arts practice and are transitioning into collaborative, socially engaged arts who are seeking support from a critical friend/guide as they develop their practice.

The award is aimed at

• artists who find themselves on the margins and feel they are underrepresented in the field of collaborative, socially engaged arts, for example due to displacement or migration, disability
• artists who are experiencing a particular practice-based challenge in developing their collaborative, socially engaged arts practice

For the five selected artist mentees, the award offers an eight-month period of capacity building and arts practice development through dialogue with an experienced collaborative, socially engaged artist mentor.

The Artist Mentor Panel is made up of experienced collaborative, socially engaged practitioners who specialise in a range of artforms, and who have worked with diverse communities from across Ireland and beyond. Each brings in-depth knowledge of the field, and a deep awareness of key considerations when working with communities, including in sensitive settings and where projects are addressing significant social issues.

See the Mentor Biographies linked on this page. Each mentor has outlined their collaborative arts practice, their approach to mentorship, areas they are passionate about and specific skills or expertise they bring to mentoring.

What the award offers

The award offers a mentorship pairing with one of the Panel’s collaborative, socially engaged Artist Mentors.

The mentorship will be driven by you as the artist mentee, following identification of key needs and areas for development. This may be a combination of technical and practical elements related to developing your collaborative, socially engaged arts practice, such as a deeper exploration of collaborative methodologies, and support in the following: developing your project ideas, leading projects, managing dynamics with diverse stakeholders, ethical considerations around working collaboratively with communities, approaches to evaluation, navigating professional networks, identifying and preparing for funding opportunities, as well as advice and recommendations around deepening your practice and strategically advancing your career.

Selected artists:

• will work with a core mentor over six meetings
• will have the option to avail of up to two additional satellite mentoring sessions with other practitioners, offering exposure to diverse perspectives and skillsets
• will take part in a two-day training programme with guest speakers designed in response to the interests of the five participating artists

Other offerings may include:

• peer support sessions with the group mentor and the option to attend events relevant to the mentees for example Create Networking Event.
• This award is part of a suite of offerings under the AIC Scheme, and Create will work with artists to offer support in navigating and engaging in other opportunities such as the AIC Scheme Awards, CPD workshops, etc

A stipend of €500 is offered to cover expenses associated with participation. The successful applicants will take part in an in-person orientation session/ mixer event with Create and the mentors. This session will outline programme offerings and provide space to discuss in more detail how the opportunity can best be tailored to each artist’s needs.

Who are the Mentors?

The mentors available for pairing in 2025 are Ruairí Ó’Donnabháin, Tomasz Madajczak, Dr. Sinead McCann, Alan James Burns, Oluwatobi Balogun, Grace Dyas and Séamus Nolan. In addition to the individual mentor-mentee pairings, artist Kate O’Shea will work with mentees throughout the programme, but will not be available for individual pairings. Former artist mentors Cathy Coughlan, Michelle Browne and Aisling Byrne will serve as programme advisors and will not be available for pairings.

In addition, the Artist Mentoring Award is supported by a group of artists who operate as satellite mentors, facilitators, trainers and advisors to the programme. These include Marie Brett, Colette Lewis, Catherine Young, Vanessa Daws, Dragana Jurisis, Evelyn Broderick, Dr. Fiona Whelan and Dr. Ciaran Smith.

Information session

An online information session will take place ahead of the application deadline. This session will provide insight into the Mentoring Award, with an artist mentor and mentee joining to discuss their experiences and explore key principles of collaborative, socially engaged arts practice.

We strongly encourage potential applicants to attend. More details can be found on our events page.

Who is this award for?

This award is for

• artists who find themselves on the margins and feel they are underrepresented in the field of collaborative, socially engaged arts, for example due to displacement or migration,

And/ or

• artists who experience a particular practice-based challenge in developing their collaborative, socially engaged arts practice.

You must be either

• an emerging collaborative, socially engaged artist

or

• have a midcareer/established individual arts practice and are transitioning into collaborative, socially engaged arts

What is the time commitment?

Participating artists are required to commit to:

• an in-person orientation session/mixer event– 2^nd July 2025
• attend a two-day training programme- 25^th + 26^th November 2025
• six meetings with their mentor over the duration of the pairings
• participation in one evaluation meeting/focus group – March 2026.
• a series of online group mentor-led engagements – dates to be agreed

The programme will run over an eight-month period from July 2025 – February 2026. Mentoring sessions can take place online, by telephone, or face-to-face. This can be shaped by the mentor and mentee according to individual needs and availability.

What are the expectations?

There are no specific expected outputs. The aim of this programme is to afford artists the opportunity to work with an artist mentor on developing their collaborative, socially engaged practice.

Making an Application

See Guidelines for Create Artist Mentoring Award 2025, linked on this page. Applications will only be accepted through the online form and all supporting material must be submitted online. Guidelines in both text and audio format, as well as the online application form, will be made available on this page. You must read the guidelines prior to submission. If you haven’t used this online form before, you should familiarise yourself with the online form, and apply early. We advise you to apply more than 48 hours in advance of the closing date, to allow time to deal with any potential issues. If an error or issue occurs, try our troubleshooting tips, also linked on this page. You may contact us and report errors if the suggestions do not help. Please note that it may take up to two working days to resolve issues. The closing date for applications is 5pm, Tuesday 6th May 2025.