Image via NIEL

While the full impact of COVID–19 is as yet unknown, Belfast City Council recognises the profound impact that it is having across the culture, heritage and arts sector.  As part of the city’s recovery and strategic plans, we are pivoting our programmes to help build the capacity of our cultural sector and maintain our commitment to make 2023 a year of cultural celebration for our city.  We believe that culture will be at the heart of Belfast’s recovery and that building the capacity of our cultural sector is essential not just to ensuring that we can deliver on the ambition for 2023 but that we build back better and to a more sustainable position than we were in before the effects of the pandemic set in.

Today we’re opening two new cultural support programmes, that will feed directly into the city’s recovery and strategic plans as part of our wider commitment to build back better.

Support for non–core funded cultural organisations:

The Pathfinder 2021 Awards are part of the city’s on–going commitment both to cultural recovery in the context of the pandemic and our on–going A City Imagining cultural investment programme for Belfast. These awards are aimed at those organisations which have struggled to secure core funding from the public sector and need some assistance to help develop and grow. They are therefore not available to those already in receipt of core funding from the public sector.  A total amount of £80,000 has been allocated for this programme. Organisations can apply for a maximum of £20,000. 

Deadline:  12noon, Monday 22nd March 2021

• To receive an application form & guidance notes: email culture@belfastcity.gov.uk
• Please reference A City Imagining Cultural Strategy in your application – click here to download a copy

• A virtual information session for Pathfinder Awards will be held via Microsoft Teams on Monday 1st March at 2pm – 3pm: to register for this email culture@belfastcity.gov.uk
• Following this information session we will be offering one–to–one guidance for organisations via Microsoft Teams on Monday 8th and Tuesday 9th March: email culture@belfastcity.gov.uk to register (these will be 45 min slots, allocated on a first come first served basis – if you aren’t available on these dates let us know and we will try and accommodate you on another date)
• Please put the title Pathfinder Awards in the subject of your emails

Support for creative individuals:

A key priority in the cultural strategy is to build the capacity of our creative sector as we develop our year of culture in 2023 and beyond. This Creative Practitioner Bursary Programme is a vital part of this development. We will directly invest in professional development of 10 freelance creative practitioners.  Each creative practitioner will be awarded a £10,000 bursary for 2021 to develop their practice and potentially shape an ambitious creative project of scale as part of the 2023 programme. A minimum of five of these bursaries will go to music–based creative practitioners as part of our development programme for UNESCO City of Music designation later in 2021.  The remaining five bursaries will be allocated to creative practitioners working in all other artform areas – consideration will be given to all areas of cultural and creative expression. 

Deadline:  12noon, Monday 22nd March 2021

• To receive an application form & guidance notes: email culture@belfastcity.gov.uk
• Please reference A City Imagining Cultural Strategy in your application – click here to download a copy

• A virtual information session for Creative Practitioner Bursaries will be held via Microsoft Teams onMonday 1st March at 3:30pm – 4:30pm: email culture@belfastcity.gov.uk
• Following this information session we will be offering one–to–one guidance for creative practitioners via Microsoft Teams on Thursday 11th, Friday 12th March and Monday 15th March: email culture@belfastcity.gov.uk to register (these will be 45 min slots, allocated on a first come first served basis – if you aren’t available on these dates let us know and we will try and accommodate you on another date)

• Please put the title Creative Practitioner Bursary in the subject of your emails

 For more information here…