To mark Mental Health Awareness Week, 10th-16th May, 2021 the Arts Council has rounded up just some of the many amazing arts organisations that use the arts as a tool to improve mental health and wellbeing for people across the region.

Thanks to the Department for Communities and The National Lottery players, the Arts Council is able to support hundreds of organisations and individual artists every year who are working to improve mental health and wellbeing, by bringing great art to people of all ages, across Northern Ireland.

Includes: 

• Northern Ireland Mental Health Festival
• Outburst Arts
• Arts Care
• Kids in Control (KIC)
• ArtsEkta
• Greater Shantallow Community Arts (GSCA)
• Armstrong Storytelling

The Arts Council has rounded up just some of the fantastic creative activities and performances you can enjoy online, most of which are funded by the Arts Council, the Dept for Communities and the National Lottery.

New highlights include: 

Last Wednesday marked 14 years since the Oh Yeah music centre first opened its doors, on May 5th 2007. To mark the occasion, it is going on tour - a virtual tour of Northern Ireland. Fourteen brilliant acts were invited to perform live in five much-loved music venues around NI, and you can watch them streaming on Oh Yeah's Youtube channel from 10th-14th May.

NI Mental Health Arts Festival (10th-16th May) sparks inspiring and challenging conversations about mental health issues, fighting stigma and promoting wellbeing via active creativity.  

Watch the Arts Council's Head of Community Arts & Education, Gilly Campbell, with her weekly roundup on NVTV here.

Two leading local charities, Bryson and Play Resource Warehouse, have announced that they are to merge. The Arts Council has welcomed the merger, believing it will ensure greater sustainability and growth for Play Resource, and enable it to enhance its services.

Play Resource Warehouse has been in operation for 38 years and, as one of the largest and most well-used resource centres in the UK and Ireland, benefits more than 300,000 people each year, mostly children and young people.

It plays an important role in the re-purposing of non-toxic waste materials from large manufacturers, shops, offices and warehouses throughout Northern Ireland that are subsequently used in creative activities and educational projects

Join Arts Infopoint UK and Touring Artists on Wednesday 12th May at 2pm for a free online webinar session to learn about the mobility of artists and culture professionals from the UK to Germany.

This webinar is intended for UK-based sector organisations, arts companies and creative professionals to provide a general overview of what has changed since the UK's exit of the EU and how professionals can prepare for work in Germany from now on. The webinar will focus on the mobility of people: artists and other culture professionals going to Germany for their work. It will cover the following topics: visas and residence permits, health insurance, and tax.

Arts Infopoint UK is a partnership between Arts Council Northern Ireland, Cyngor Celfyddydau Cymru | Arts Council of Wales, Creative Scotland and Arts Council England.

The second round of the Bank of Ireland Begin Together Arts Fund, in partnership with Arts & Business NI and Business to Arts in Ireland is making a total of £865,000 in arts funding available over three years, awarded to projects that are adapting due to the pandemic, or are inspired by and responding to our recovery. 

The Arts Fund supports or commissions artists and arts organisations to develop arts projects that engage the individuals, audiences and communities involved. All art forms are eligible to apply to the fund. With this second round, Bank of Ireland and Arts & Business NI and Business to Arts are encouraging more applications from artists who specialise in fine-art film and craft-related disciplines and from community arts organisations, who were under-represented in round one.  

• Tue, 18 May, 2021: Webinar 1: General Overview & How to Apply, 1:00pm – 2:00pm
• Thu, 20 May, 2021: Webinar 2: Audience, Budget, & Evaluation, 1:00pm – 2:00pm
• Wed, 23 June, 2021, 5:00pm: Deadline for applications.

This year, the Turner Prize nominees are made up entirely of collectives who have helped to "inspire social change through art". Among the five nominees for the 2021 Prize is Belfast-based Array Collective. Array Collective are a group of individual artists who join together to create collaborative work that tackles issues affecting Northern Ireland, using performance, protest, exhibitions and events. The jury commended the way the Collective's work "fuses seriousness with humour, and addresses contemporary issues using ancient folk imagery".

Recent projects have included public artworks in support of the decriminalisation of abortion in Northern Ireland, challenging legislative discrimination of the LGBTQ+ community, and participation in the group exhibition Jerwood Collaborate! in London.

An exhibition of nominees' work will be held at the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum in Coventry from 29th September 2021 to 12th January 2022 as part of the UK City of Culture 2021 celebrations. The winner will be announced on 1st December 2021 at an award ceremony at Coventry Cathedral covered on the BBC.

Young at Art presents 'Creative Pathways', a new online cultural careers initiative for secondary schools across Northern Ireland.

This is an opportunity for Post-Primary pupils from Year 10 and above to hear top professionals discuss their own Creative Pathways and what they think the future will hold for the sector.

Sessions will take place week commencing 17th and 24th May and are free to participate in. 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, organisations are using lots of different methods to stay connected, such as text messaging, email and video calls. However, communication via these means brings safeguarding challenges that must be managed. Volunteer Now  has developed resource videos on how to deal with a disclosure and communicating safely online: 

• Online communication sheet. 
• short animation.  
• Dealing with a disclosure video and summary sheet.  

HRSE is offering three commissions, with funds from PRSF's Talent Development Partnership, to emerging composers from NI. Emerging composers are here defined as composers without a large track record of professional performances of their works and for whom one of these small commissions, and its subsequent performance, would make a difference in terms of helping kick-start their career. Each commission is worth £1,500.

Deadline for the submission of proposals is 12 noon on Fri 28th May 2021. 

Keep up to date with the latest Coronavirus updates from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, including a list of potential funding sources which might be helpful to artists and arts organisations at this time. We will update this list as we go along. 

If you know of any other sources, please contact us at and we will share with the sector.