Dublin City Bursary Awards 2027: up to €5,000 for resident visual and digital artists — 28 October deadline
A locally restricted €5,000 development grant — closing 28 October
Dublin City Council Arts Office is receiving applications for its Bursary Awards 2027 until Wednesday 28 October 2026 at 12 noon, Irish local time. The awards offer individual professional artists living within the Dublin City Council administrative area grants of up to €5,000, excluding additional personal access costs. The funding is intended to develop an artist's practice in 2027: learning, research, mentorship and time to explore new ideas, rather than an obligation to deliver a finished public exhibition. For professional visual, moving-image or digital artists whose work fits the Arts Office's supported artforms, the programme may be a useful opportunity.
Who is actually eligible? City residents rather than all of County Dublin
The geographical condition is strict: applicants must live inside the Dublin City Council administrative boundary. Being based in the wider County Dublin area, collaborating with a Dublin gallery, or planning a future visit does not by itself prove residence inside that local authority area. The official page links to a map to check the boundary. Artists living close to a border should verify their address or email artsoffice@dublincity.ie before investing time in an application. This is a Dublin-city-resident opportunity, not an unrestricted Irish or international call.
Applicants must be individual professional artists. Dublin City Council defines a professional artist as someone maintaining an active artistic practice who can demonstrate engagement and recognition in their field. A business that occasionally makes graphics, a group applying as an organisation or a person with no established art practice should not assume this individual award is automatically appropriate. The council welcomes artists from different artistic backgrounds, but applicants must work in an artform supported by its Arts Office.
Can digital art, moving image or experimental media qualify?
The scheme's official wording is deliberately artform-wide rather than a separate technology grant. An artist creating photographic, moving-image, installation or other computer-based visual artwork can consider applying when the work forms part of an established professional art practice and an eligible council artform. However, the webpage does not separately promise eligibility for every game-design, software engineering, animation-production or commercial film activity. Applicants with an unusual practice should seek confirmation from the Arts Office before submitting, especially where the proposal crosses between artistic development and commercial product development.
Undergraduate study is excluded; postgraduate development can be eligible
Applicants cannot be in undergraduate education during the bursary period. The council's FAQ says those studying, or planning to enter, a postgraduate-level course may apply, provided the proposal is credible; applicants to a course should support the plan with an acceptance letter or provisional offer. People already undertaking a course can still apply, but need to explain how bursary support would make a meaningful difference to their artistic development. It is not a general student tuition payment scheme with automatic eligibility.
How can the bursary help an artist develop?
Examples from the official FAQ include attending a course, designing a self-directed research period, working with one or more mentors, taking part in a professional artistic residency, or renting studio space where that directly advances the artist's practice. The artistic-development activity may take place outside the Dublin City Council area, including abroad, even though the applicant must be a local resident. Applicants should explain how the learning will benefit their ongoing practice and artistic contribution in Dublin.
For a digital or moving-image artist, a relevant development plan might concern a focused period of artistic research into motion, image archives, screen installation or interaction, or mentorship with a specialist in exhibition presentation. These are editorial examples of how to describe artistic learning, not a preapproved list of funded digital technologies. A well-scoped project should say what the artist needs to learn, why that learning is needed now and how it may shape future artwork.
Not an equipment-purchase, marketing or project-production fund
The council's FAQ explicitly excludes equipment purchases, marketing costs, administration costs and utilities. It even uses camera purchases as an example of costs that cannot be included. An artist planning to buy a workstation, projector, computer, recording camera or specialist hardware should not treat this development bursary as a straightforward capital-equipment scheme. Likewise, a proposal whose main purpose is launching a commercial product or paying for publicity is unlikely to meet the stated purpose.
Some time and proportionate living costs may be included when related to the artistic-development activity, but the award is not meant to cover all the applicant's living expenses. A realistic budget should clearly explain what proportion of work time is being supported and include suitable documentation for courses, residencies or mentors. Proposals containing any disallowed budget items may be judged ineligible without progressing to artistic assessment, so budget compliance matters as much as the creative idea.
The assessment is transparent: 40% ambition, 30% relevance, 30% feasibility
The Arts Office publishes a weighted framework. Artistic Ambition accounts for 40% of scoring, including the quality and originality of previous work and the clarity of the proposed development. Relevance and Timeliness account for 30%: why the learning or research is appropriate at this stage of the artist's career and what lasting impact it could have. Feasibility and Development Plan account for the remaining 30%, including an achievable programme, proposed schedule and realistic financial plan.
This weighting suggests a useful approach: begin with concrete evidence of an existing practice, identify one or two developmental questions and connect these to activities and collaborators who can help answer them. Then provide a plausible 2027 timetable, fees or cost estimates and outcomes that describe genuine artistic progress. Ambition without a plan, or a detailed budget with no artistic rationale, leaves a substantial portion of the assessment unaddressed.
Work samples and mentor documentation
The FAQ recommends including no more than five carefully chosen examples of work. More material is not necessarily better: selected examples should show quality, direction and the professional context of the practice. If mentorship is part of the proposed activity, identify the intended mentor and provide supporting evidence such as a biography, CV or letter of support to show they have the relevant expertise and are aware of the collaboration. A provisional offer for a course or residency can likewise strengthen an application.
Bursary versus project grant: choose the right Dublin scheme
The Arts Office separately offers Project Arts Grants 2027, which are intended to create or publicly present new work in the city and can support €5,000–€10,000 subject to co-funding requirements. Bursary Awards are different: they are for the professional development of one artist, even if the research does not culminate in a new public show during the funding year. The FAQ permits applications to both strands where appropriate, but each submission should be clear about the distinct purpose of its requested funding.
2027 only, and Submittable is the required submission route
All proposed bursary activity must take place in 2027. Applications must be completed in the Arts Office's official Submittable portal before noon on 28 October 2026. Late applications, applications sent by email and paper applications are not accepted. The official page links to a Bursary Award 2027 guidance document and a recorded information session. Prospective applicants should read the guidance before entering their plan and budget into the online system.
After receiving funding, artists must report on its use
Successful awardees must use the money for the purposes described in the application, keep basic financial records, submit a brief activity report and return unspent funds. If the proposed activity cannot proceed, the Arts Office requires notification. These duties should be considered from the outset, particularly where planned artist residencies, tuition dates or mentors may change. Funding is competitive: meeting eligibility rules does not guarantee an award.
Final checklist before 12 noon on 28 October
Confirm your home address lies within the Dublin City Council boundary; establish that you are a professional artist working in a council-supported artform; ensure you are not an undergraduate applicant; describe a clearly developmental activity taking place in 2027; prepare up to five relevant samples and any course or mentor documentation; remove equipment, publicity, administration and utilities from the requested budget. Finally, submit online with enough margin to address portal or attachment problems rather than waiting until the final morning.