Culture Ireland awards €890,000 to take Irish artists to audiences in 36 countries
More than €890,000 has been awarded to Irish artists and cultural organisations to present their work internationally, as part of the latest round of Culture Ireland's Regular Grants Programme. Announced by Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport Patrick O'Donovan on 30th July, the funding will support 143 projects across 36 countries, encompassing literature, music, theatre, dance, film and visual arts.
The grants are intended to help Irish artists reach international audiences through activities including performances, exhibitions, tours and appearances at festivals and other cultural events. Announcing the funding, O'Donovan said the allocation highlighted the Government's commitment to “supporting Irish artists and cultural organisations in reaching international audiences”.
The latest awards arrive against the backdrop of increased funding for Culture Ireland under Budget 2026. Its allocation was increased by €800,000, with the Department saying the additional funding was intended to help develop and sustain Irish artists' international careers.
From Irish stages to international audiences
Culture Ireland operates differently from schemes designed to support the creation of work in Ireland. Its focus is international presentation. Rather than primarily funding an artist to write or develop a new piece of work, its Regular Grants Programme supports Irish professional artists and arts organisations to present work to audiences outside the island of Ireland.
That can include international tours, performances, exhibitions and festival appearances. The July funding round illustrates the geographical reach of that support. Irish musicians will tour countries including the United States, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Denmark, France and India. Theatre companies will bring work to Australia, Latvia, China, the UK, Canada and the US.
Writers supported in the latest round will appear at international literary events including the Vancouver Writers Festival in Canada and the International Interdisciplinary Literature Festival in Cyprus. Author Charleen Hurtubise will present SAOIRSE through a series of literary events in the United States and Canada. The inclusion of literature alongside theatre, music and multidisciplinary practice is particularly relevant to spoken word, an art form that frequently operates across all four.
Where spoken word fits
For spoken word artists, the announcement points to an international funding route that extends beyond conventional literary publication. This raises a practical question: where does spoken word fit within Ireland's international cultural funding system?
Spoken word does not always sit comfortably within a single funding category. A spoken word artist might describe themselves as a poet while performing work rather than primarily publishing it. Another might combine poetry with music, rap or theatre. A full-length spoken word production might resemble a theatre show, while a ten-minute festival performance could be programmed as part of a literary or multidisciplinary event. Culture Ireland's funding structure potentially accommodates that flexibility because its international work encompasses several disciplines rather than restricting support to a single definition of literary practice.
For spoken word artists, the key consideration is not the availability of a dedicated grant, but whether their work and proposed international opportunity meet the criteria of Culture Ireland’s existing funding programmes. That distinction is important. Ireland's spoken word scene has developed substantially through open mics, poetry slams, independent showcases and festivals. These provide artists with places to develop material and build audiences domestically. But the transition from performing regularly in Ireland to presenting work internationally requires another layer of infrastructure: contacts, invitations, travel and the resources to make an overseas appearance financially viable. Culture Ireland potentially provides support at that stage.
Why international funding matters
An invitation to perform abroad does not necessarily make international touring financially possible. Flights, accommodation, transport and other costs can make a festival appearance prohibitively expensive, particularly for independent artists or small organisations. An opportunity that appears professionally valuable can therefore become financially unrealistic. Culture Ireland funding is designed to help bridge that gap.
For spoken word artists, international appearances can have a development value beyond the performance itself. Literary festivals, poetry events, theatre festivals and multidisciplinary programmes can introduce an artist to new audiences, promoters, programmers and other practitioners. A single international engagement can potentially lead to further invitations or collaborations. It can also allow artists to place their practice within a wider international context and develop professional relationships beyond the Irish cultural sector.
This is particularly relevant to spoken word because the form is comparatively portable. Unlike productions requiring large sets or extensive technical infrastructure, a spoken word performance can sometimes travel with relatively modest production requirements. That does not make international work inexpensive, but it can make overseas festivals, readings, showcases and collaborative projects realistic possibilities for artists who have developed a professional body of work in Ireland.
Not funding to create the work
There is, however, an important distinction between Culture Ireland funding and many domestic arts grants. The Regular Grants Programme is principally concerned with the international presentation of Irish work. It is not designed primarily to provide an artist with income while they develop a new project from its earliest stages. That means an artist generally needs to have moved beyond the idea of wanting to perform internationally. There needs to be a credible international opportunity around which an application can be built.
For an emerging spoken word artist, the progression might therefore begin elsewhere: writing and performing at home, developing a body of work, appearing at showcases and festivals, establishing a professional track record and building relationships with programmers.
Culture Ireland becomes particularly relevant when that work is ready to travel. Seen in that context, it forms one part of a wider funding ecosystem. Basic income can provide an artist with time to sustain a creative practice. Arts Council and other project funding can help work to be developed. Grassroots venues provide stages on which artists can perform and build audiences. Culture Ireland can help established work make the next move: reaching audiences outside Ireland.
The full list of recipients can be viewed here.
€4 million for Ireland's EU Presidency
The July announcement sits alongside a considerably larger international cultural programme taking place during the second half of 2026.
A further €4 million has been provided for Cultúr 2026, the cultural programme accompanying Ireland's Presidency of the Council of the European Union from July to December.
The programme is intended to showcase contemporary Irish artists across every EU member state as well as every county in Ireland.
That investment places international cultural presentation within a broader diplomatic context. Artists are not only being supported to develop careers overseas, but are also being positioned as part of how Ireland represents itself internationally.
For literature, poetry and spoken word, this matters because cultural representation is not confined to art forms traditionally associated with touring. Language itself is one of Ireland's most readily exportable cultural forms.
A route outward for spoken word
The €890,000 announcement does not constitute dedicated investment in spoken word, and it should not be interpreted as such. What it demonstrates instead is that a substantial international funding mechanism already exists around the form.
Literature is being supported. Theatre is being supported. Music is being supported. Multidisciplinary performance is being supported. Spoken word can move between each of these territories.
The challenge for artists is developing work and professional relationships to the point where that international funding becomes accessible. That makes Culture Ireland particularly relevant to artists who have already progressed through Ireland's grassroots performance circuit and are considering what comes next.
A sustainable spoken word ecosystem requires opportunities at several levels. Artists need time to write. They need small stages on which to experiment. They need paid performances and festivals through which to build audiences. And, for those seeking to develop internationally, they need a route beyond Ireland.
The latest Culture Ireland awards show that public funding exists for that final step. For Irish spoken word, the opportunity lies in ensuring that artists increasingly see themselves, and are recognised by cultural institutions, as part of the literature, performance and multidisciplinary work Ireland is prepared to send out into the world.
