The deadline for the Arts Council’s music and traditional arts bursary awards — 19 January 2012 — is fast approaching. The purpose of these awards is to support professional artists to develop their practice by providing them with the time and resources to dedicate all of their energies to their art.

Potential bursary proposals could be those that enable artists to invest time in focused study of a particular repertoire, facilitate the composition of a body of work, or those that enable a performer or composer to buy time for the development of their artistic practice.

In the case of the music bursary, applications from choral directors or singers to embark on programmes of professional development, mentoring or research in order to advance their artistic practice are considered a strategic priority.

The maximum bursary award available is €15,000 per year. While the emphasis of the award is on artists ‘buying time’, to a limited extent the award also allows for other costs intrinsic to supporting the development of the artist’s practice. In this context, applicants may apply for living costs, or they may apply for third-party expertise or the hiring of services where it can be demonstrated that such costs are necessary to the development of the artist’s practice.

To download detailed guidelines and application information for the music bursary, visit: artscouncil.ie/en/view_fund

For the traditional arts bursary, visit: http://bit.ly/lMOopP

To view a complete list of this year’s bursary award winners, visit:

artscouncil.ie//en/we_funded

Pictured: Composer Dave Flynn, a recipient of this year’s bursary award