The Association of Local Authority Arts Officers in collaboration with the Arts Council, established PLATFORM 31 in 2020 – a national opportunity for artists to develop their practice and test new ideas of collaboration, research, audience development, place-making and sharing their work.
Designed to support and offer career development for 31 mid-career artists (one artist in each of the 31 local authorities around Ireland), there are two elements of support for participating artists in the scheme: financial and developmental.
Participating artists receive an €8,000 bursary to invest in themselves and their practice, combined with participation in an advisory and developmental framework and a peer network.
The peer networking framework for participating artists, will introducing them to a pool of critical thinkers to share their work and learnings, and encouraging a national conversation about creating work in local contexts. The exact nature of this artist support framework will be informed by the proposals and interests of the 31 artists selected.
The award is open to artists of any discipline and practice, based in Ireland, as well as multi-disciplinary practice and design of all kinds.
It is designed to support mid-career artists who must have been in receipt of support/investment from a Local Authority Arts Office or the Arts Council within the last three years.
Film maker, Maeve Stone, was the Clare recipient of the award in 2021. 2022 saw eco poet Grace Wells receive the award
