Welcome to our first newsletter of the New Year.

The Arts Council is very pleased to announce details of additional 2012 touring allocations amounting to just over €740,000 to 33 artists and arts organisations.  Arts Council Touring aims to boost levels of touring activity to cities, towns and villages.  The Arts Council is committed to enabling work of artistic quality produced in this country to be seen by as many people in as many places as possible throughout Ireland.  

We have a number of application deadline reminders. Deis, the scheme for the traditional arts and our new Opera Production Award have a deadline of 9 February. The emphasis of the Opera Production award centres on encouraging a collaborative approach to opera production based on partnerships between artists, producers and presenters.  The popular Small Festivals and Events Scheme 2012 (Round Two) has a deadline of the 10 February.  The Artist in the Community Scheme, managed by Create, has a first round deadline of 15 March and a second round deadline of 25 June.

Arts Audiences has published a guide to working with the local and national tourism sector to increase tourist attendance at arts events. They also have a work opportunity available with a closing date of 9 February.

In March we will be holding a Dance Funding Clinic to provide information about the various funding schemes currently available for dance artists. The clinic will be led by our Head of Dance, Davide Terlingo, and Dance Adviser, Aoife McGrath.

In our news from the arts community section we have information about the re-opening of the Lighthouse Cinema in Dublin;  the new extension to Limerick City Gallery of Art and about a new initiative which aims is to establish itself as a support and advocacy network for the street arts, circus and spectacle artforms in Ireland.  The Irish Street Arts, Spectacle and Circus Network (ISACS) will host an open meeting in March.

We also include our regular news item from the Cultural Contact Point (Ireland).

Yours sincerely

Orlaith McBride, Director, Arts Council

The Arts Council has allocated over €740,000 in funding under its Touring and Dissemination of Work Scheme, for the second half of 2012. A further €125,000 has been allocated to four artists/ organisations to assist with their advance touring plans for 2013.

The Arts Council will hold a Dance Funding Clinic on the 14 March to provide information about the various funding schemes currently available for dance artists. The clinic will be led by Head of Dance, Davide Terlingo, and Dance Adviser, Aoife McGrath.

Twice yearly, the Arts Council offers grants to enable artists and communities of place/or interest to work together on contemporary collaborative arts projects. This scheme, called the Artist in the Community Scheme, is managed by Create.

The purpose of the Arts Council's Deis scheme is to provide support for traditional arts projects, or projects involving collaboration between the traditional arts and other artforms, that are in line with the Arts Council’s policy on the traditional arts. There is a Deis closing date coming up on the 9 February.

The small arts festivals and events scheme (Round Two) is open to organisations that organise and promote festivals or events with a clear artistic purpose that will take place in the second half of the calendar year 2012. A festival may represent one artform or may include a wide variety of different artforms. In 2011, the scheme funded 163 small festivals to the value of €863,399.

News from the Cultural Contact Point Ireland (CCP) includes information about: The European Commission's Culture Programme which is calling for proposals for Strand 1.3.5: Cooperation Projects with Third Countries. 2012 is the European Year of Active Aging and Solidarity between Generations and the year seeks to address the opportunities that this represents.  There is a photographic competition organised by Europe Direct Firenze and the Servizio Sport of the Florence City Council to mark the special year.  Erasmus 2012 is also calling for proposals - Erasmus Mundus is a cooperation and mobility programme in the field of higher education.