Our work in arts

Applications are now open for the UK-Ireland Culture Connects Grant, supporting artistic collaboration between IRL and the UK. Find out eligibility, key dates, and how to apply today.

In May 2026, British Council Ireland joined a luncheon to celebrate the arrival of the inaugural Jaipur Literature Festival: Island of Ireland to Dublin.

In June 2026, in collaboration with the UK Department of Business and Trade, we supported delegates Jo Mangan and Aisling Murray at South by Southwest (SXSW) London.

We were proud to launch the world premiere of ‘Fite Fuaite’ – a new music commission from artists from across Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Applications are now open for support and funding for joint projects between leading UK and Irish cultural institutions.

On 25 November 2025, we co-hosted a celebratory lunch for the sixth anniversary of the Puttnam Scholars Ireland/Northern Ireland Film Programme with British Ambassador to Ireland Kara Owen.

British Council Ireland commissioned research to explore arts and cultural connections between the UK and Ireland.

We were delighted to host a roundtable discussion on ‘Creative and Cultural Industries’ research with UK’s leading academic, Professor Dave O’Brien from the University of Manchester.

We were happy to support anti-disciplinary artist, producer and writer Renn Miano to attend this year’s Outburst Festival taking place from 14–22 November 2025 in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

British Council Ireland was thrilled to partner with Beta Festival, Ireland’s art and technology festival, for the third consecutive year.

Poetry Ireland and British Council Ireland are delighted to announce Alvy Carragher (Ireland) and Ali Choudhary (UK) as winners of the Eavan Boland Award 2025.

We partnered with the British Embassy in Dublin on a Culture Connects: Lives Entwined reception and performance on 10th March 2025.

We partnered with Dublin International Film Festival as part of their 2025 programme on a panel focusing on how festivals can act as catalysts for improving sustainable practices.

We supported Irish delegate Juno King to take part in Showcase Scotland at Celtic Connections, Glasgow, 22-26 January 2025.

British Council Ireland commissioned research to explore arts and cultural connections between the UK and Ireland.

We supported three delegates from the ULYSSES European Odyssey project to participate in the 14th CoMUSEUM International Conference in Greece from 4-6 December 2024.

We supported visual artist, diversity, equity and inclusion advocate and writer, Pradeep Mahadeshwar, to attend Outburst Festival 2024 in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

We were delighted to support Simon O'Connor, Director of the Museum of Literature Ireland, to attend British Council's Literature Seminar in Berlin from 14-16th November 2024.

British Council Ireland were delighted to support Beta Festival, Irelands first art and technology festival.

We partnered with the British Embassy in Dublin to co-host an in-person event to celebrate the 5th anniversary of the Puttnam Scholars Programme on 23 October 2024.

In October 2024, we are supporting a series of panel discussions at The Gate Theatre based on Agreement, a play depicting events surrounding the Belfast Agreement set in 1998.

Taigh/Tŷ/Teach is a major, tri-lingual co-production of a new site-specific piece written by Màiri Morrison (Scotland), Eva O’Connor (Ireland) and Mared Llywelyn Williams (Wales).

UK artist, architect & journalist Marko Milovanovic presented at Architecture on the Edge Festival in Galway, Ireland on 27 September 2024, supported by British Council's showcasing grant.

British Council Ireland sent three delegates from Ireland to Unlimited Festival at the Southbank Centre in London in September 2024.

British Council Ireland are supporting Weft Studio 2024, a Dublin Fringe Festival talent development initiative for emerging and early career Black and global majority artists.

We supported multidisciplinary Northern Irish artist, Ashton, to attend DIVE #3 in August 2024 in Ireland, organised by ISACS and Waterford Spraoi.

We hosted a screening of Chariots of Fire with British Embassy in Dublin with producer Lord David Puttnam & Irish Olympian and presenter David Gillick to mark the 2024 Paris Olympics.

British Council Ireland were delighted to support ULYSSES European Odyssey (UEO), an epic project which took place from 2022-2024 across 18 cities in 16 countries.

In May 2024, we brought TS Eliot Prize winning poet, acclaimed musician and novelist Anthony Joseph to Dublin for two inspiring events with International Literature Festival Dublin.

We are proud to have worked alongside the Dublin International Film Festival in 2023 and 2024 to bring the best of UK film expertise to Ireland.

In March 2024 we partnered with Galway Arts Centre to bring Five Films for Freedom to their Nuns Island Theatre space in Galway.

British Council Ireland and the British Embassy in Dublin are proud to have supported the Creative Postcards project across multiple years.

We collaborated with the Institute of Designers in Ireland on the launch of Design Declares in Ireland on 14 November 2023.

So Say So is a monthly event focusing on poetry, storytelling and music where British Council were delighted to support two UK artists attendance in 2023.

We were delighted to support Manuela Moser Director of Cúirt Literature Festival in Galway, Ireland to attend Momentum Literature Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland.

We collaborated with Aerowaves on their Spring Forward Festival which took place in Dublin from 27 – 29 April 2023 by supporting UK artists' mobility.

We supported Turner Prize nominated Otolith Group and their significant new work 'A Sphere Of Water Orbiting A Star' with Galway Arts Centre.

This project brought together existing academic and sector-based research to understand how all-island relations within the professional performing arts (dance and theatre) may be nurtured.

This session was designed to provide a space for performing arts practitioners, producers and policymakers to engage in a conversation about sustainability in the performing arts.

The Otolith Group specially curated a series of talks and discussions in January 2023, which featured contributions from an international mix of dynamic guests.

Literary Cities (re)introduced Irish audiences to a canon of Scottish writers both past and present, in Irish and Scots Gaelic as well as English.

We celebrated 100 years of the BBC with the British Embassy in Dublin and the British Ambassador's residence in Glencairn, Dublin.

Array Collective brought their prestigious 2021 Turner Prize winning work 'The Druthaib’s Ball' to Galway Arts Centre from August to October 2022.

The British Embassy in Dublin, British Council Ireland & I.NY partnered with St Patrick's Festival on 'Glencairn Conversations: ‘Ireland, Britain, and the shaping of our artists'.

Arts and Disability aims to support greater access to the arts by disabled people as audiences and as artists.

Find out more about our work as part of European Union National Institutes for Culture network

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