Investing in creativity
We’ve been building partnerships between cultural and commercial businesses through the Investment Programme for almost four decades, bringing creativity into the heart of businesses and investment to arts organisations.
The Investment Programme helps organisations ignite long-term partnerships, reach new audiences, connect with communities, support business solutions, and deliver world-class arts and culture.
The Investment Programme is funded by Arts Council Northern Ireland.
What is The Investment Programme?
The Arts & Business NI Investment Programme is a competitive match-fund, which supports partnerships between arts organisations and commercial businesses in Northern Ireland.
Who can apply?
The Arts & Business NI Investment Programme is a competitive match-fund, which supports partnerships between arts organisations and commercial businesses in Northern Ireland.
What do we fund?
We help partners build sustainable long-term relationships and achieve more. An investment from this programme should allow the partnership to develop, undertake additional activity or push the project to another level.
We can award up to £15,000 match-funding to the lead arts partner in a financial year; a partnership can receive investment a maximum of 2 times.
A full breakdown of eligibility, investment limits and exclusions can be found in our guidelines below.
How To Apply
Both partners should complete the application and budget form. We open submissions for this fund 5 times a year and the deadlines are as follows;
-
30 January 2026
-
27 March 2026
-
29 May 2026
-
28 August 2026
-
30 October 2026
-
29 January 2027
This is a competitive application process, assessed by a panel of judges convened by Arts & Business NI.
We will notify both successful and unsuccessful applicants of the outcomes within 3-4 weeks of the application deadline.
The Arts & Business NI Investment Programme is funded by Arts Council Northern Ireland.
Sign up to our newsletter
