Creative Waterford Open Call

Each spring, Creative Ireland Waterford extends an invitation to the people of Waterford to see themselves as co-creators of their own cultural and creative experiences and apply for the annual Open Call.  

New, ambitious, and meaningful collaborations between people and communities are encouraged. Applications are open to community and voluntary groups, organisations, venues, artists, writers, performers, archaeologists, historians, architects, archivists, schools, colleges, and individuals who have something to contribute to creativity and culture within Waterford. 

The Creative Ireland Programme in Waterford recently launched the new Culture and Creativity Strategy 2023-2027. The strategy allows for the continuation of funding for projects that embed creativity in the community. The annual Creative Waterford Open Call is based on six priority areas for development. Agencies, communities, individual artists and others are encouraged to apply for funding to develop collaborative creative projects.

Application dates and details are announced on the Creative Waterford social media channels each year. To celebrate the launch of another 5 years of Creative Waterford, there were two categories of grants in 2023. Grants up to €8,000 and a second category of grant awarded for applications up to €20,000. A maximum of two grants were given for the larger funding and these project proposals showed significant levels of community engagement, collaboration and partnership, and of course creativity.

The Creative Ireland Programme was extended for a second five-year term to run from 2023. One of the pillars is “Creative Communities”, a local authority-led initiative which pioneers and supports local creative projects in areas such as arts, heritage, local history, STEAM and the creative industries. Previous projects in Waterford included the Designers and Makers Exhibition in Waterford Gallery of Art, community acting classes in Tallow, creative workshops at Pride festival and moss art in West Waterford relating to the sustainable development goals.

For further information on the full list of projects awarded funding from the Creative Waterford Open Call 2023, please read our Blog HERE.

Creative Communities Toolkit

Applying for funding through the Creative Ireland Waterford Open Call is competitive. Applicants are encouraged to work through the Creative Waterford Toolkit which gives advice and information on how best to approach devising a project for this or any culture/community application process.
Download the toolkit from the links below.