Opportunity
Irish Hospice Foundation (IHF) offer Seed Grants to communities / individuals wishing to creatively process or memorialise loss. In order to allow people to adapt to Covid-19 regulations, the deadline for this year’s applications has been extended to Friday 12 November 2021 at 5pm.
Supported by the Creative Ireland programme, IHF sets out to inspire and support the work of groups, organisations and individuals who wish to mark in some tangible way their response to the universal realities of dying, death, and bereavement, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The IHF began an Arts and Creative Engagement initiative in the early stages of the pandemic. With all of us affected by loss, deprived of the normal customs of grieving and our care staff fraught, the programme offered a way for people to find meaning in a difficult time.
The extended 2022 grant will lead to a broader engagement with communities across the country. There will be 26 micro Seed Grants for communities to support self-directed creative explorations of grief and seven Compassionate Culture Network programmes run over 12 weeks.
Watch a short film of projects supported previously here.
Seed Grants
Priority for the micro-grants will be given to creative initiatives that take innovative approaches to reflection and remembrance. The grants aim to help start new local art projects, or to support existing projects in gaining momentum – this may involve artists, craftspeople or coders. It may be a group or simply an individual who has a good idea.
Grants are a maximum of €1,000 each.
Key Dates
- Thursday 28 October at noon: Online application briefing and clinic (including Q&A). Zoom link on website. No need to register.
- Friday 12 November 12 at 5pm: Extended closing date for all applications.
- Tuesday 23 November: Successful awardees announced. All applicants will be notified this week.
- Developed to 30 April 2022: Successful projects must be completed by this date.
Application Process
Apply for a Seed Grant here.
Compassionate Culture Network
The Compassionate Culture Network programmes are local workshops exploring loss in the pandemic and are aimed at establishing a training programme for creatives working in arts and health, within a peer-to-peer framework. Seven artist-facilitators, along with support workers, will work in seven venues around Ireland and invite local communities to explore ‘loss’ as ‘un-lockdown’ happens. The aim is to use creative practice to establish places where people can talk about loss. For information on what’s happening near you visit the IHF’s Compassionate Culture Network page.
The Creative Ireland Programme has also supported the publication of the IHF’s Reflection, a combination of interviews and poems detailing how people on the frontline coped during the early days of the pandemic and the impact of dying, death, grief and loss on them. Reflection is the first in a series of IHF-led creative initiatives into learning from the pandemic.
Irish Hospice Foundation
IHF are the national agency focused on death, dying, grief and loss. They work with a vision of Ireland where “every death matters” delivering education, training, and awareness programmes alongside systemic and social change strategies and policy campaigns. Their ambition is to reduce the impact of carelessness where it leads to suffering. Over 35 years, IHF has become embedded across the delivery of care in Ireland working with multiple HSE Departments, the NGO sector and community sector.
hospicefoundation.ie
Updated 28 October 2021 with new closing date for Seed Grants.
