Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 20 October 2016
173. Deputy Joan Burton asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs if she will create an arts capital fund, modelled after the sports capital fund, to ensure better long-term funding for the Irish arts. [31288/16]
View answerEarlier this year, I announced a new €9 million investment scheme for arts and cultural centres to run over the next three years, focussed on enhancing the existing stock of such centres around the country. The funding is being made available as part of the Capital Investment Framework 2016-2021.
My Department's scheme targets investment at a range of different facilities and will be broken down into three streams as follows:
- The refurbishment and enhancement of existing purpose-built arts and cultural facilities, with maximum grants of €300,000. Eligible facilities would include arts centres, theatres, galleries, museums, artists' studios and creative spaces (Stream 1).
- Significant improvements to a smaller number of key facilities. Ideally, projects seeking this stream of funding would have financial support from the relevant local authority. Grants of up to €2 million may be offered under this stream (Stream 2).
- Smaller grants of up to €20,000 for community or voluntary organisations operating in facilities, which have not been purpose-built (Stream 3). The details of this Stream are being finalised and will open for applications shortly.
It is my priority to target investment at securing and enhancing existing cultural facilities.
The closing date for receipt of applications under Streams 1 and 2 was 16th September. Applications received by my Department for funding under this scheme are now undergoing evaluation.
