Twice yearly, the Arts Council offers grants to enable artists and communities of place or interest to work together on projects. The scheme covers all art forms. The Artist in the Community Scheme is managed by Create, the national development agency for collaborative arts, providing services for arts development and collaborative arts practice in Ireland.

The aim of the scheme is to encourage intense collaboration between communities of place and/or interest and artists, culminating in an artwork or a project in which the members of the community group and the artists work together in order to realise an artistic project or an event. It is essential that meaningful consultation take place between the artist and the community group, so that both parties are involved in deciding on the nature of the project. Group ownership of the art should be maintained at every stage.

There are two phases to the scheme:

• Phase One, Research & Development is open to artists who wish to research and develop a project in a community context. Maximum time frame is 3 months.
• Phase Two, Project Realisation, is open to communities of interest or place and/or their representative organisations who are planning a project.

Deadlines in 2009:

• Thurs 26 February
• Thursday 25 June

The new application forms will be available from mid-January 2009. For further information, application forms or to book an advisory session, contact Create, 01 473 6600, email support@create-ireland.ie, website www.create-ireland.ie