Culture Night 2024

What is Culture Night?

Culture Night is an annual event that celebrates culture, creativity and the arts that takes place on Friday 20th September, 2024 from 4pm till late. Arts and cultural organisations across the country open their doors until late with hundreds of free events, tours, talks & performances for you, your family and friends to enjoy.

What’s special about Culture Night?

Exciting and unique events happen on Culture Night on the streets and in other public spaces around Ireland. It’s a reminder of the fantastic cultural facilities and resources that we have and it encourages more people to visit cultural venues and experience culture in their area.

Venues stay open later and longer than usual and it’s promotes what's on offer from cultural organisations, artists, venues, artists’ studios, performers, galleries, art collections, archives, interesting buildings, places and spaces, museums, arts centres, libraries etc.

It encourages participation in cultural activity by all ages and all members of our community and everything is free of charge.

What’s happening in County Clare?

Building on the great success of previous years, County Clare will again celebrate Culture Night in 2024. Almost 2500 people attended 42 Clare events in 2023. Coordinated by Clare Arts Office, we are now inviting artists (of all disciplines) groups, schools and organisations to hold an event(s) county wide and have it included in a national and county programme of events for Culture Night.

Programming Priorities

Culture Night aims to ensure accessibility for people of all ages offering a special chance for everyone to uncover new experiences within their community. We actively promote and embrace the inclusion of diverse voices and cultures that contribute to Ireland today. This is inline with the Arts Council’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Policy and supported by a specific toolkit they have developed.

As we anticipate not being able to cater for the expected demand, we have listed a number of priorities for 2024.

We seek to engage with and create opportunities for increased participation with those who may not always have easy access to events of a cultural nature, particularly but not limited to, the following:

• D/deaf culture or arts and disability.
• Irish traveller culture.
• Under-represented groups.
• Asylum seekers, refugees and migrants.
• Those promoting gender equality.
• Young People (Ages 18 - 26)

In selecting events for inclusion we will also be looking for

• A county – wide spread and in particular events that encourage participation in a new part of town or the county.
• Events that have not been done previously or have a new spin on them for 2024.
• Events that take place throughout the evening (start times between 4pm and 11pm), particularly those that run later in the night in order to extend the Culture Night experience.
• Events that make Culture Night visible in the county by using unlikely venues or public setting (free venues such as outdoor spaces, community halls, libraries etc) will be prioritised over those events taking place in commercial venues / pubs / hotels etc. Funding for venue hire will only be provided in exceptional cases.
• Events that actively target those who may not normally have easy access to cultural events and that diversify the cultural offering to attract and reach new audiences
• Events that encourage participation by diverse artists.
• Family friendly events
• Events that support the making or sharing or performing of work by artists based in Clare and implement The Arts Council ‘Paying the Artist’ Policy.

What types of events could I hold?

Culture night is an opportunity to showcase unique cultural events such as:

• Exhibitions, classes & workshops
• Outdoor projections on buildings
• Multicultural celebrations
• Cultural trails or cultural treasure hunts
• Live music and live art
• Walking tours
• Events involving primary & secondary schools (please note events must take place after 4pm).
• Intergenerational events celebrating positive ageing and young people
• Street performances
• Film screenings
• Book readings or storytelling
• Use cultural venues such as museums, galleries, castles, libraries, heritage and arts centres etc

Log onto www.culturenight.ie to see what happened around the Country last year.

Will funding be available for events?

Some events may not require funding, others will. If your event does not require funding please just insert 0 into the budget question. Applying for funding does not guarantee that your event will be funded. Grants will typically be in the region of €100 to €1,500 (but we reserve the right to give larger amounts for more involved proposals). While there is no fixed number of awards, there will generally be a larger number of lesser value awards and a small number of higher value ones, reflecting a geographic spread county wide. Payment to artists will be prioritised within funding allocations.

Funding will not be provided for

• refreshments
• venue hire
• marketing

Conditions of funding

• All projects / artists must have their own insurance. If awarded financial support you will have to provide a specific indemnity to Clare County Council on your insurance policy in respect of the event(s) and submit to the Arts Office by the deadline specified in letter of offer.
• If your application is successful, funding claim must be submitted to the Arts Office by early October 2024 (exact date to be confirmed in letter of offer if successful).
• Access to all events must be open to the public, free of charge and take place on the 20th September from 4pm till late.
• It will be a requirement that promotional information on your event is provided by deadlines required for the Culture Night website (exact date to be confirmed in letter of offer if successful)
• All social media and printed material must carry funding logos / use funders tags (to be supplied in the letter of offer). All images used must have consent of those featured in them and must have photographers license or agreement to be used.
• Payments will only be made to the applicant who will be required to provide contact details, bank details and PPS number.
• Changes to the final event from the awarded application may effect the final funding – significant changes must be notified in advance.

You will be notified if you have been successful during June 2024

Alternative Funding Streams

• An tOireachtas will be offering funding for Culture Night Irish Language events. Applications open from Mid May. For more information visit: Oíche Chultúir 2024 || An tOireachtas
• Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann offer a stipend to branches to run events for Culture Night. Please contact Comhaltas directly for details.

*Please indicate in your budget if you have applied for support from An tOireachtas or Comhaltas

How do I apply to be part of Clare Culture Night 2024?

It is your responsibility to secure a venue. It is not the role of Clare Arts Office to find you a venue.

• Consult your group or organisation and relevant community partners to plan what event(s) you will hold.
• Consult owner of proposed location for your event(s) to ensure permission will be forthcoming.
• Research costs if any. Priority will be given to artists fees, promotion and documentation on the night
• Phone us if you are not sure about anything or email clareculturenight@gmail.com
• . Alternatively you can send a query to us through the form below. Best to send queries or clarifications in advance of making an application

When ready fill out the Application Form below. Closing date for Applications is Friday June 7th, 2024, 4pm