Government allocated over €60 million in 2021 to a suite of measures to assist the arts and culture sector. As part of that funding, I was delighted to be in a position to fund 237 successful applications under the Live Performance Support scheme, the details of which are available on my Department’s website.
There was a very high level of interest in this scheme, with over 400 applications requesting funding in excess of €80 million. The 237 grants awarded will help support employment and wellbeing opportunities across all genres and the continued production of high quality artistic output for the public. Details of the successful applicants and their individual projects can be found on my department's website here - www.gov.ie/en/service/ca5d7-live-performance-support-scheme-2021/#list-of-grantees.
All applications were referred to an Evaluation Panel for assessment and recommendations for allocations which were then subject to approval. The Evaluation Panel assessed applications and scored under the following critera in order to determine which applications would be funded. The table below outlines the criteria used to evaluate each application.
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Maximum Marks
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Meeting Aims and Objectives of the Scheme - Employment opportunities, Audience strategy, Ensuring ongoing cultural activity in non-subsidised venues
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30
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Track Record - Prior experience, No. of events held, Income generated, other observations
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20
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Feasibility - detailed breakdown of production costs, Completion of budget template, realistic audience targets for live/online, rates of pay in line with industry standards, realistic project timeline
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20
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Contracts of employment for Project- Artists, creative, crew, support staff, - Artists costs as % of production costs
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15
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Other Factors - Flexibility of approach, geographic spread, H&S report, diversity of genres
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10
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Quality of Application
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5
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Total Score
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100
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Once this scheme concludes, all grantees will also be required to complete a questionnaire which will collect relevant data including:
- employment days generated;
- production costs, and;
- artistic output.
This data will be collated and used to underpin an evaluation of the scheme which will assist in the planning of future supports for the sector.