The Arts Council has today announced the successful recipients of Round 2 of our Agility Award for 2022. There was a total of 683 successful participants bringing the total number of successful participants to 1,313 across the 2 rounds this year.

The Agility Award supports individual artists and arts workers at any stage in their careers. The Agility Award grant is of up to €5,000 and will help musicians, actors, writers, dancers, filmmakers, and visual and other artists develop their practice and are based in all four provinces of Ireland.

Speaking about the awards, Maureen Kennelly, Director of the Arts Council said, “We are delighted once again to fund even more artists than we ever have in a single year. It has been really inspiring to see the creativity and ambition behind the applications. We continue to make vital connections with artists new to us, and we encourage applications from other artists who may not have been funded previously by the Arts Council.”

The Agility Award, which was introduced as a rapid response to the pandemic in 2020, has provided over €3.2m in funding in Round 2, bringing the total Agility Award funding in 2022 to over €6.2m. Since its inception, a total of over €14.6m has been awarded to 3,117 artists through the Agility Award. In addition to this support, the Arts Council will be making significant funding available throughout the year across all of our funding strands.

Recipients spoke of how the award would allow them to fulfil long term ambitions, support them and how receiving an award like this for the first time was a real validation of their passion for their work.

Newly awarded recipients of the Agility Award include; Katie O’Donoghue who is a children’s writer, illustrator and art psychotherapist. Aik Jolayemi who is a singer/songwriter who brings together influences from the world of R&B with a pop flair. Fiachra Kelleher who is a writer of realist literary fiction. Julie Lockett who is an independent dance artist who has performed, collaborated, choreographed, presented work and directed their own projects. Jack Lunt who is a multinational film artist whose practice focuses on experimental, non-narrative film projects that engage with the contemporary narratives. Tomasz Madajczak who is a professional visual artist whose works focus on change, cultural diaspora, language and identity, articulated through carefully chosen art media onto site-specific or in-situ multimedia installations.

See the full list of Agility Award – Round 2 recipients.

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