In a statement today, The Arts Council say they made “a regrettable error” which incorrectly led to 141 applicants to believe they had been awarded €25,000.

In an unfortunate turn of events, The Arts Council issued letters to 141 applicants for the Next Generation Artists award incorrectly indicating that an award would be granted to those receiving the message.

They swiftly emailed after to inform all those affected that they would not be receiving the grant and apologised.

The Next Generation Artists’ Award is designed to support artists across a range of disciplines at a pivotal point in their career. Successful applicants receive €25,000 invited to take part and contribute to ART: 2023, a partnership programme between the Arts Council and the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media to mark the final phase of the Decade of Centenaries programme 2012–23.

Read the full statement below:

“The Arts Council yesterday made a regrettable error. We issued letters to 141 applicants for the Next Generation Artists award, incorrectly indicating that an award would be granted. We then emailed all affected to inform them of our error and we apologised unreservedly.

Our mistake has understandably caused upset and disappointment and, for this, we are truly sorry We have now put in place additional checks for the issue of decision letters to prevent a repeat of this error.

Supporting artists is a core goal of the Arts Council and we sincerely apologise to the artists that we let down on this occasion. For any further questions or concerns, please email awards@artscouncil.ie.”

Anyone affected by the error can email queries to awards@artscouncil.ie

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