Minister Catherine Martin announces over €700,000 funding for promotion of Irish arts globally

The Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Catherine Martin, has announced funding of over €700,000 by Culture Ireland, "for the promotion of Irish arts globally in 2022."

€610,000 of that funding will be supporting 80 projects, presenting Irish architecture, film, literature, music, theatre and the visual arts worldwide, through Culture Ireland’s Grant Programme. €100,000 of the funding, meanwhile, will be for SEODA 2022, a special online festival set to take place over the St. Patrick’s Day period.

SEODA, which is curated by Culture Ireland – and will be broadcast on Culture Ireland's YouTube channel – will feature a selection of some of the most recent work from Irish artists, covering theatre, music, dance, film, literature, and opera. The first edition of SEODA was held last year, and helped Irish artists reach new audiences across the world. Full details of the online festival will be made available in the coming weeks.

Many artists are being supported to travel to the UK, Europe and the US over the St. Patrick’s period – including Silverbacks, Aoife Scott and Sharon Shannon. Irish musicians will also be touring the US over the same period, including Just Mustard (supporting Fontaines D.C.), CMAT, Screaming Orphans, Téada, and Shane Hennessy.

Irish theatre will also tour widely, with Manchán Magan embarking on a tour of the US from March through May, with his acclaimed show, Arán agus Im. Also in May, Brannar Téater do Páistí will present How To Catch A Star in Ottowa, and from August to December, Gare St. Lazare will take the 25th anniversary tour of the Beckett Trilogy across the US.

United Fall will be presenting Birdboy at Imaginate, Edinburgh’s International Children’s Festival, and Teaċ Daṁsa will be presenting their award winning show MÁM at the International May Festival, Wiesbaden, Germany. In September, Liz Roche Company in partnership with Solas Nua will present their dance show Yes and Yes in Washington D.C. and also in Philadelphia.

The Irish Architecture Foundation, in partnership with the Estonian Centre for Architecture, will present “There is a forest in my backyard, but my house is built from trees grown far away” at the Tallinn Architecture Biennale. Currently exhibiting in Solstice Arts Centre in Navan, the exhibition will be presented in Tallinn for a seven-week period in September and October 2022.

“During 2022, Culture Ireland will continue to support Irish artists to present their work internationally and I am delighted that this funding will ensure that our artists can again reach audiences in person," Minister Martin says. "It is for our artists that Ireland is best known and the period around St. Patricks Day offers a unique platform for Irish artists to reach audiences worldwide”.

See cultureireland.ie for more