Minister for Education Helen McEntee TD has today invited schools and YouthReach centres across Ireland to apply to take part in Creative Clusters for the two years commencing September 2025.
Up to €575,000 has been made available this year for Creative Clusters, enabling up to 210 schools to come together across 42 clusters.
Creative Clusters supports clusters of three to five schools to work together on building capacity in creativity with the support of a specialist facilitator.
The programme is open to primary and post-primary schools, including special schools, as well as YouthReach centres.
Creative Clusters support includes release time for schools to meet and develop their project, as well as funding of up to €15,000 to help bring their creative plans and ideas to fruition over the course of two years, from 2025 to 2027.
The resources provided will help the schools and YouthReach centres to build a project of learning and activities tailor-made for their community with their students.
Minister McEntee said:
“This is a wonderful opportunity for schools and YouthReach centres to work together on a creative project of their choice. Schools are given complete freedom to design and develop their own project, with support from a local facilitator and their local education support centre.
“Creative Clusters will help schools to further enhance creativity in their classrooms. It will support students of all ages to develop creative and critical thinking skills, learning to adapt and collaborate as well as to enjoy and explore artistic and creative expression – whether through traditional arts, STEM or other creative avenues.”
To date, Creative Clusters has given 588 schools in 210 clusters the opportunity to work together to develop creative projects and collaborate on new ideas based on their local experience and unique perspective.
Each Creative Cluster will receive funding of €3,000 per school over a two-year period to implement their project in the 2025–2027 school years. For example, a cluster of three schools would get €9,000 over two years while a cluster of five schools would receive €15,000 over two years.
The application process will be open until 10th April 2025. Please find link to application form here .
Guidelines for applications will be available from the Department’s website here .
