Age & Opportunity is pleased to offer a unique professional development bursary for up to three professional artists with an interest and background in the arts and older people in a care context.
The Artists Care Exchange (ACE) bursary is intended to help artists develop their skills, contacts and professionalism so that they can work more confidently and expertly with older people in a care setting. ACE also aims to help artists understand the various ways to find paid work in this developing field.
Eligible professional artists from a wide range of art forms are encouraged to apply to ACE, including but not limited to: visual arts, film, dance, theatre, literature music, circus and multidisciplinary arts.
Artists Care Exchange Programme
Who it is for: The Artist Care Exchange Programme (ACE) will offer an opportunity for nine professional artists in total to renew and upskill their work with older people in care settings to exchange information, advice, and experiences in a group setting, whilst also learning from a range of experts in the social, medical, and arts fields.
(Age & Opportunity will offer a unique professional development bursary for up to three professional artists while a further six professional artists will be appointed via nomination from Local Authority).
We encourage artists who may be new to this field of work and / or have previously participated in our Experience: Arts, Health and the Older Person programme to consider applying, as ACE provides a natural progression to further their understanding and skills for working in care settings. Newer entrants to this field of work will need to demonstrate their suitability to the programme by telling us about their experience in adjacent fields (community, education or health settings).
Overall, ACE provides a rich setting for networking and co-learning from other participant artists, and from the speakers.
Full programme description, dates and application details can be found in the below “guidelines” document.
Application Process:
The following materials should be submitted to the Arts Programme Administrator, Aoife McCloughlin at arts@ageandopportunity.ie no later than 12pm (noon) on Wednesday 5th August 2026 with ACE application 2026 in the subject line.
- Completed application form
- CV or short biography, along with 3 examples of your work (i.e. selected images, scripts, YouTube links, writing example of no more than 3 pages)
Any queries relating to ACE may be directed to arts administrator, Aoife McCloughlin, by email (arts@ageandopportunity.ie).
