The Arts Council of Northern Ireland provides funding to individual artists for international or locally based projects, travel grants and residencies. With the exception of rolling travel awards, the SIAP awards are only open for applications at specific periods biannually. There are seven types of awards under the programme and three of these schemes have been added in 2012 including the Minority Ethnic
Individual Awards and Artist in the Community Awards (Intercultural Scheme) within the Artists’ Career Enhancement scheme.
The current SIAP awards are open until 16 August 2012.
Many artists even well established run into difficulties completing funding application forms. As a result we have formulated an at a glance guide.
The information in this document is accurate on the date published - August 2012

The New Minority Ethnic Individual Artists Awards commenced in 2012 as part of the
ACNI Intercultural Strategy. Whilst similar to the SIAP general arts awards these are the main differences in criteria:
 One of the main differences with this new award is that artists do not have to be established and the awards are open to new and emerging artists. This award can include a range of possible expenditures, for example exhibition costs, purchases to support an exhibition and project expenses.
 The maximum amount is £1,500 per application. Cross discipline projects and activities are encouraged however applicants intending to collaborate with other artist(s) must not use single artforms, for example, a collaboration project with two dancers would not be eligible for a grant whereas a singer
and dancer would.

This is a new scheme added as part of the Arts Council’s Intercultural Strategy. It is important that all potential applicants must contact a member of the Community
and Participatory arts team prior to making an application.
The scheme is designed to support and nurture professional artistic practice within a community setting. Therefore you will need to choose a relevant partner organisation or community who must provide a letter of support with your application. The award will provide the selected artist(s) with the time and resources to reflect research and reconsider art practice within an intercultural context. Artists will need to demonstrate a commitment to collaborative practice within an intercultural community development setting and context. Full guidance on criteria is on page 19 of the guidance notes.
The award is framed within Six Strategic Themes
 Intercultural Engagement
Promoting exchanges between different cultural groups within society
 Developing the Minority Ethnic Arts infrastructure develop collaborative working through arts and cultural activity between new and existing communities
 Using the arts to develop Community Cohesion
Working to promote cohesion and integration for a shared and better future for all
 Using the arts to increase awareness of Diversity develop understanding of the diversity that exists in Northern Ireland
 Developing programmes that use the arts to develop Good Relations working to develop good relations between new and existing communities in
Northern Ireland
 Using the arts as a vehicle to tackle Racism
Working to tackle racism between new and existing communities in Northern
Ireland.

The following points should hopefully provide further clarification when completing your application form:
Full guidance and application forms are available from the Arts Council of Northern
Ireland website www.artscouncil-ni.org/subpages/funding.htm
The common criteria for assessment uses numbered criteria listed on page 4 of the
Arts Council SIAP guidance notes. It is important for applicants to use these criteria and relate these on the application form.
You cannot apply for:
 Self commissioning of publishing costs
 Prolonged study at centres of further or higher education
 Work that forms part of under-graduate or post-graduate study or is intended to be assessed as part of an academic course
 Work which forms part of your professional or academic employment.
Though this does not exclude those working in an academic institution of statutory body who are continuing to pursue their artistic practice
 Study relating to a professional qualification
 Applications to fund or establish websites
 Applications relating to projects/commissions already in receipt of arts council of northern Ireland lottery funds
 Application relating to residencies or rent of premises at venues already in receipt of arts council funding (for example residencies at the Tyrone Guthrie
Centre)
 Costs for the purchase or manufacture of musical instruments although the new ‘Take it Away’ scheme will offer interest free loans through approved instrument retailers.
A project cannot commence until the Arts Council makes its decision and this is received in writing.

Question 1.9 requires employment history - this is not an issue in relation to the application if you have not worked in Northern Ireland.
2.3 The Project description should be completed in bullet points supporting the Six
Strategic Themes for your project.
2.4 Requires targets measured and this should include what you wish to achieve whether this will be, for example: Two exhibitions at Any Street Gallery in Any town for X weeks generating X,000 visitors, or 6 venues, 12 shows for a touring
programme generating X,000 audience.
This section requires a detailed breakdown for how much your project will cost. For this you will need to provide a table with a clear breakdown of all the expenditure you will require. For travel expenses you need to provide 27.5p per mile regardless of mode of transport.
When budgeting for your daily research or your ‘buying time’. As a guide, a good example within the normal levels of funding would be to allocate £25 per day with an additional £10 per day for subsistence (food etc).
All applicants must provide supporting documentation in addition to the application form. Providing website addresses or links to online support material is not acceptable. Page 9 of the guidance notes provides examples of supporting material and it is preferable to provide a printed version of for example a portfolio, manuscripts or catalogues (whichever is applicable).
5.1 Requires all the information about you with a separate history of artistic practice.
This is a good well laid out CV.
Some enclosures aren’t applicable for the Intercultural grants, these are 5.2 and 5.3.
For further information about SIAP funding you can contact the Arts Council of
Northern Ireland on 90385200 or Community Arts Partnership on 90923493.