Start Date: September 1^st 2024

Duration: 4 Months

Award: €1500 per Mentor and €1500 per Mentee

Maximum number of Mentees/Mentors: 8 Mentees + 8 Mentors

ABOUT THE FUNDING

THE DIGITAL ARTS MENTORSHIP SCHEME was born out of the Arts Council’s Digital Arts Policy 2023.The policy highlights the urgent need to develop capacity both across the broader arts sector and within the Arts Council to support artists working in digital art in Ireland today.

Stakeholders identified mentorship as a key component of that long-term capacity building. The Cultural and Creative Industries Skillnet was awarded the contract to oversee the Digital Arts Mentorship Scheme in June 2024.

The Scheme aims to support individual digital artists to develop and extend their practice through the process of mentoring with an experienced digital artist or other arts professional. This is a pilot scheme. Mentees will propose their mentor at the point of application. It is envisaged that the mentees/mentors will meet at least once or twice per month over the four-month period.

For the purpose of this call, the definition of Digital Arts aligns with the Arts Council’s Digital Arts policy as follows:

“Digital is a fundamental part of how we live our lives today. It impacts our work, our home lives and how we engage with culture and the arts. Digital is often used as a catch-all phrase in the arts. It covers everything from production and subject matter to marketing and social media. As such, the first priority of this document is to outline the scope of the policy.

The policy does not focus on marketing or Information and Communications Technology (ICT). Instead, its remit is to enhance and build on the Arts Council’s support for digital artistic activity. The Arts Council defines digital artistic activities as artistic work that:

• Engages directly with digital tools and cultures as the material to create work and/or as the subject for example data art, computer software and artificial intelligence.

• Relies on digital technologies to achieve its artistic purpose for example video and artist moving image, digital lighting, web/online art, virtual reality, augmented reality etc.

• Is represented through digital platforms or devices for example streaming of theatre, sharing artwork on Instagram, streaming music, reading eBooks, multi-media accessibility, etc.”

WHAT IS MENTORING

Mentoring offers professionally focused development for artists. It opens the potential for knowledge sharing and gives artists the opportunity to observe and formally review aspects of their own practice in action. Mentoring can involve a mentor/ mentee relationship which brings an experienced artist together with a less experienced artist, to guide and support their creative process.

The following guidelines were drawn from other mentoring models funded by the Arts Council.^[1]  They are merely intended to be loose guidelines and are by no means definitive. Each mentoring relationship is unique and must be driven by the needs as defined by the participants.

There are three basic guidelines, which apply to mentor and mentee:

1. That there is a shared desire to be in a mentoring relationship.

2. That the boundaries between mentor and mentee are clearly set out and understood.

3. That there is honesty, confidentiality and trust on both sides.

Mentee’s Responsibilities

The onus is on the mentee to drive the relationship in order to feed the mentor with challenges/issues/materials to which they can respond. Therefore, the mentee should clearly define the parameters of their professional ‘need’. Other responsibilities include:

• To adhere to any deadlines agreed and set.

• To ensure that any necessary materials to be considered at the next meeting is with the mentor at least 5 days prior to the meeting to allow the mentor space to formulate a meaningful response.

• To be respectful of the mentor’s time and obligation.

 • To be flexible in terms of travelling to meetings or engaging with the mentor through online meetings, taking into consideration at all times the mentor’s access requirements.

• To be open to coming out of one’s comfort zone and to take risks.

• To have the desire and ability to learn new things about your practice and yourself.

• To be willing to take constructive criticism.

Mentor’s Responsibilities

A mentor bears witness to the development of the mentee’s vision and shares in certain elements of it. Other responsibilities include:

• To act as a sounding board and advisor to the mentee (rather than a “teacher”).

• To help define the goals and strategies that will help and challenge the mentee.

• To act as an objective eye and to encourage independence.

• To vary styles of relating to the mentee according to their needs, ranging from directive to non-directive, encouraging the mentee “to become the artist they want to be”.

• To provide a sense of support and affirmation to the mentee.

• To give a constructive critical response to the mentee’s materials.

• To monitor that the relationship is resulting in meaningful development – is the mentee making progress?

• To be flexible in terms of travelling to meetings and taking into consideration at all times the mentee’s access requirements.

Additional Information

1. Meeting spaces – We suggest that you meet in a neutral space or online via conference call initially until you become comfortable with one another (unless it is necessary to be in a working space).

2. Length of meetings – It is up to you to negotiate the length of the meetings but we would suggest between one and three hours per session as a general guideline.

3. Length of mentorship engagement – Mentorships will run from September 1^st to December 31^st 2024

4. Development of relationship – the relationship between mentor and mentee is likely to be stronger towards the end of your time together rather than at the start. It may be useful to remember this when planning meetings.

WHO CAN APPLY?
To apply you must be an individual digital artist living in the Republic of Ireland. This includes artists with a background and expertise in the use of digital technologies and many types of digital media for creating work.

For the purposes of this funding call, the definition of digital artistic activities are outlined in the Arts Council’s Digital Arts Policy 2023.

WHO IS NOT ELIGIBLE TO APPLY?

People who are not eligible to apply in 2024 include those who:

• Do not have an artistic practice
• Are not living in the Republic of Ireland and have not demonstrated that the outcomes of their proposal benefit the arts in the Republic of Ireland
• Have already received Arts Council or other public funding for the activities for which they are applying
• Are in foundation courses, undergraduate education or postgraduate education from August 2024 to July 2025 (if applying to the mentorship).

APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS

Applications for the Digital Arts Mentorship Scheme must be made directly via the online application form (LINK BELOW)

Within the form you will be asked to provide the following information. Failure to submit all required documents will lead to your application being automatically disqualified.

• Full Name
• Address
• Phone Number
• Email
• Access Requirements
• Career Stage
• Arts Council Reference Number (If applicable)
• Gender
• Ethnicity
• Proposed Mentors Name
• Proposed Mentors Email
• Proposed Mentors Website
• Have You Worked with this Mentor Before?

You will also be asked to link to the following documents (Please link to a file sharing platform of your choice eg GDrive, Dropbox, OneDrive)

• MENTORSHIP GOALS:
  (Max 1 page)
  Please include details on what you want to achieve from the mentorship, why it’s important for you to do this at this stage of your practice, and how you plan to do it.
  Consider the following as part of this section: 
  -What are your biggest challenges for you as a digital artist? ( For example technical skills, creative block, self-promotion, networking)
  -What are your short-term and long-term goals for your digital art career? (beginner – mid-career, provisional, freelance, full-time artist, International, etc.)
  -What specific areas would you like to improve in your digital arts practice?
  -Why is your proposed mentor the ideal candidate to support you in this mentorship?
• YOUR CV (Max 2 pages) Please upload your arts practice CV.  
• PORTFOLIO Please include a link to your online digital portfolio. This must include a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 5 samples of digital art.  
• MENTOR LETTER (Max 2 Pages) Please upload a letter from the mentor describing why they want to work with you and their availability for the dates in your proposal.
• MENTOR CV (Max 2 pages) Please upload your mentor’s CV
  
  

ASSESSMENT PROCESS The criteria for assessment of applications are as follows:

Relevance and suitability of the mentor proposed. (35 Marks)

Skills gap to be addressed for the mentee through the proposed mentoring plan and potential benefit to the career progression of the mentee. (35 Marks)

Quality of portfolio submitted. (30 Marks)

AWARD

€1500 each per Mentor and €1500 each per Mentee

AWARD PAYMENT SCHEDULE

70% upon signing the mentorship contract (September 2024)

30% upon completing a short online mentorship survey, at the end of the 4 month period (January 2024)

KEY DATES

HOW TO APPLY?

CLICK HERE TO APPLY

QUESTIONS

If you have any question please contact barbaradeignan@furthr.ie

FAQ

Can one mentor undertake more than one mentorship?

Yes, a mentor can support up to two different mentees over the course of the Digital Arts Mentorship Scheme.

Can the mentor be based outside of the Republic of Ireland?

Yes, the mentor can be based outside of the Republic of Ireland. Invoices must be submitted in euro.

Does the mentor need to have experience in Digital Artistic activities?

The mentor must be a digital artist or other arts professional with experience in digital artistic activities nationally or internationally.

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^[1] Parts of these guidelines have been distilled from a document drawn up by ADI and Fire Station Artists’ Studios using resources drawn from Connect Mentoring Programme which was funded by the Arts Council and delivered by Create and Common Ground in 2009-10.