Portadown's disabled and deaf artists offered grants up to Â£5K

Actress Luna Kalo, visual artist Shiro Masuyama, performance artist, Sinead O'Donnell and dancer, Nicola McLaughlin, four of the thirteen recipients of the Arts & Disability Forums iDA (Individual Disabled/Deaf Artists) award in 2017. (photo courtesy of Arts Council of Northern Ireland)

The scheme, which is run by the Arts and Disability Forum with funding from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, has helped the careers of many artists who have gone on to achieve international recognition.

Chris Ledger, Chief Executive of the Arts and Disability Forum, said that the purpose of iDA was to provide a flexible process supporting disabled and deaf artists to produce exciting new work and gain new experiences.

She added: “The grant scheme is open to proposals from artists with all types of impairment or disability. This is a developmental scheme so we welcome applications from emerging talent as well as from more established artists but decisions are made on artistic merit, talent and ambition.

The Arts & Disability Forum added they would ‘love to hear from companies of any kind that might be interested in forming future partnerships.’

The application process is open now, and the deadline for applications is 12 noon on Thursday, April 12. Projects can begin in June 2018 at the earliest and are expected to be completed by May 2019.

Artists can download the criteria and guidelines from the iDA micro-site.

Visit idaaward.wordpress.com/GG.