About Us

Our investment is financial, infrastructural and developmental.

We administer and allocate funding through Arts Grants; Revenue Arts and Cultural allocations; Artists Bursaries; Project Awards and the Arts in Context Scheme.

We maximise the use of heritage resources and buildings for arts and cultural purposes. Current arts and cultural building assets of Cork City Council include Civic Trust House, Jack Lynch House, Munster Literature Centre, National Sculpture Factory, St Luke’s, St Peter’s, The Butter Museum, The Guesthouse, The Lido (home to Cork Community Artlink), Triskel Christchurch, Wandesford Quay Complex (home to The Lavit Gallery, Backwater Studios, Cork Printmakers). Recent capital works at Elizabeth Fort will enhance its function as an outdoors arts and cultural venue into the future.

We develop and support targeted professional development for artists and arts workers. In addition to offering learning opportunities, we develop and support residency programmes including Dance Artist in Residence and Theatre Artist in Residence schemes in partnership with the Firkin Crane and The Everyman respectively; and Platform 31, a development programme for mid-career artists. We look forward to augmenting these supports over the life of this plan.

We ensure that arts and culture remain a pillar of the city and advise on how the arts are considered and embedded, as appropriate, in strategic plans including the City Development Plan, Corporate Plan, Local Area Development Plans, Creative Ireland Local Strategy etc.

Through research and demonstration, we build understanding and appreciation of arts across our stakeholder base. With strong evidence, we make the case for arts and culture and its role in realising the vision for Cork City’s future in the context of targets set by Ireland 2040. In particular, we seek to promote the potential of the arts in contributing to well-being, community development and cultural reputation.

We amplify communication about the arts to the public and support the arts and culture sector in the issues that matter to them.  

Partnership has been identified as a key enabler of our strategy.  The work of the Arts Office is amplified and extended by a suite of alliances with arts and cultural organisations, educational institutions, community groups and third-party statutory organisations (e.g. other Local Authorities, HSE, ETB) that address gaps in arts provision and development. Partnership projects include: Arts for All; Arts in Schools; Beag Early Years programme; Kinship (Creative Climate Action); Music Generation and Cork City Artist in Residency programmes.

We also act to identify and broker the relationships and connections that create or enhance opportunities for arts and culture in the city and for artists locally, nationally and internationally.

We will seek to strengthen our existing connections and advance new collaborations in the delivery of this strategy.

We support the arts and culture sector in the creation of events and activities that bring our city and its public spaces to life. Cork’s existing cultural offering ensures a vibrant, diverse calendar of activity throughout the year.

In addition, the Arts Office holds an Events function that directly delivers ambitious, large-scale cultural events and festivals in the city for all to enjoy. These include Cork St. Patrick’s Day Festival; Glow - Christmas Celebration; Culture Night and Cruinniú na nÓg.

We also support the commissioning and maintenance of Public Art across the city.  We look forward to increasing our focus and efforts in this area as a strategic priority over the course of this plan.