Culture Night 2011 – Application Guidelines

The Culture Night initiative was launched in 2006 in Dublin by Temple Bar Cultural Trust (TBCT), to provide a new and imaginative way for people from all walks of life to participate in the cultural life of the city.  Since its inception, the event has grown year on year and in 2010, the event included 132 cultural organisations in Dublin attracting over 152,000 people.

In view of the success of the Dublin event, the then Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism, decided to extend the concept to towns, cities and counties across Ireland in 2008.  This expansion proved hugely successful and Regional Culture Night was further extended in 2009 and again in 2010 when 20 towns, cities and counties across Ireland participated, namely Dublin, Carlow, Cork, Galway City, Galway County – Oughterard, An Ghaeltacht, Kerry, Kildare, Kilkenny, Laois, Letterkenny, Leitrim, Limerick, Mayo, Roscommon, Sligo, Waterford, Westmeath, Wexford and Wicklow. Temple Bar Cultural Trust co-ordinates the regional event on behalf of the Department.

Culture Night 2011 will take place on Friday 23rd September.  We plan to build on the success of Culture Night to date and are interested in new and exciting ways to develop Culture Night as a unique offering of memorable experiences and to stimulate repeat visits to cultural attractions after Culture Night itself.  We want to involve local arts, culture, heritage and all areas of the larger community such as local clubs, sports centres, schools, universities, local libraries as well as retail spaces and arts and cultural centres/organisations in the area.

On Culture Night, key artistic and cultural organisations in participating towns and cities, extend their opening hours until 11pm (if possible) to provide the public with increased free access to the various collections, workshops and other events hosted by the organisations.  This year, organisations participating in Culture Night are encouraged to bring the starting time forward to 3pm in an effort to increase opportunities for people to get involved earlier and for longer, where local resources permit.

Regional Culture Night
If you are located outside of Dublin and interested in organising a Culture Night in your region, then we ask you to provide the Department with a detailed outline of how you can deliver a unique event according to the criteria outlined in the Culture Night 2011 Guidelines PDF. |DOWNLOAD PDF HERE|

Applications should be forwarded no later than the 21^st of April 2011 to:

Clare Pilkington
Cultural Institutions Unit
Department of Arts, Heritage and Gaeltacht Affairs
New Road
Killarney
Co. Kerry