Open Call: Hatch Awards 2025

Open Call: Hatch Awards 2025

HATCH AWARDS 2025

The biggest gift Hatch offered me last year was the resource to have conversations with design collaborators.  Too often for me, those conversations happen with the pressure of a creation process.  Hatch allowed us to have artist to artist exchange outside that usual framework and I gained so much from the designers' perspectives.  Knowing what enriches our creative process and having the resource to do so are different things.  Hatch provided the support do some focused work that has already been of great benefit as I develop my next piece.  - Fearghus Ó Conchúir, HATCH Artistic Research Award, 2024 

Hatch is a flagship award from Dance Ireland, offering seven awards recognising the diverse needs of artists at different stages of their practice and career within our dance ecology. With the principle of sustainability at the heart of this award, Hatch is designed to support resilience, connection, and creative breathing space.  

The awards focus on investing in time for artists to think, reflect on, and reimagine their creative processes, make connections with other artists; and will provide an enhanced opportunity for one dance artist to experiment, collaborate, and seed and develop a new work. 

I am positive that my capabilities as a choreographer will only improve after having discussed so many concerns with my mentor and clarified many doubts. I can say that up to now I have gained important tools I was missing to move forward on my path as a creator – Rocio Dominguez, HATCH Mentoring Award 2021/Creation Award 2023 

There are three strands to the Hatch Awards: 

  1. Hatch Mentoring Award – three awards of €500 for early career artists to engage in mentoring outside the studio.
     
  2. Hatch Artistic Research Award – three awards of €3000 to invest in and support practice for established artists. 
     
  3. Hatch Creation Award – one award of €8000 and 2 weeks of in-kind studio space for a mid-career or established artist to provide an incubation opportunity to focus on seeding and developing a new work. 

ARTISTIC RESEARCH AND MENTORING AWARDS 

We are offering three awards of €3,000 to invest in and support practice for established artists, and three €500 awards to early career artists to engage in mentoring and support with the selected established artists. The assessment panel will match artists for mentoring based on needs and experience.

HOW THE AWARDS CAN SUPPORT YOU 

  • Provide support for established artists to take time to invest in their practice and space to think, research, and reimagine their work 

  • Provide opportunities for early career artists to be mentored and supported by those more established in the sector 

  • Foster innovative thinking and artistic research outside the studio 

  • Provide support for development of practice and connection between artists at a critical time 

MENTORING AWARD - CRITERIA AND GUIDELINES 

  • This opportunity is for Dance Ireland professional members 

  • You should be an early career artist who has graduated or entered profession within the last 3 years, please supply a detailed CV 

  • Successful applicants will be matched with a mentor  

  • The €500 is a fee to support your time to participate in the mentoring. (Not mentor’s fees.) 

  • Your proposal should demonstrate how this award could support your practice at this time 

  • We ask successful participants to share their progress with Dance Ireland, this can be through a blogpost, report, or in a creative way that links to their practice 

ARTISTIC RESEARCH AWARD - CRITERIA AND GUIDELINES 

  • This opportunity is for Dance Ireland professional members 

  • This award is for independent artists not in receipt of Strategic Funding from the Arts Council of Ireland 

  • You should be an established artist with a track record of at least 5 professionally produced and presented works, please supply a detailed CV, biography, and examples of previous work (any video links should be YouTube or Vimeo) 

  • You must be willing to dedicate a day/7 hours to engage in mentoring and supporting an early career artist  

  • We ask successful participants to share their progress with Dance Ireland, this can be through a blogpost, report or in a creative way that links to their practice 

  • Your proposal should demonstrate how this can support your practice at a critical time 

HATCH CREATION AWARD 

The HATCH Creation Award is an initiative from Dance Ireland designed to provide an incubation opportunity for a dance maker(s) to focus on seeding and developing a new work. The award offers the resources needed in a creative process to experiment, develop, and work collaboratively, and can be used to resource a transition period for a maker, which would not otherwise be possible. 

The award offers space in the Joanna Banks Creation Studio at DanceHouse for two consecutive weeks between the 1 and 13 December 2025; and a budget of €8,000. The studio is available whole-time for two weeks. Whole-time means all hours that DanceHouse is open (generally Monday-Thursday approximately 10am-9pm and Friday and Saturday 10am-6pm), and you do not need to strike props, set or equipment until the end of the residency.  

  • This opportunity is for Dance Ireland professional members

  • This opportunity is aimed at mid-career and established makers who need time and space to begin the incubation process of a new ambitious idea  

  • Applicants will have created and professionally presented a minimum of three works (for stage, site, film or other) to date, please supply a detailed CV, bio, and examples of previous work (any video links should be YouTube or Vimeo), and dates/locations of presentation where appropriate.

  • The proposal should mark a significant development of; or departure from your existing body of work

  • Applicants must be available to use the studio provided during the dates outlined above. 

  • The successful applicant should be willing to share their progress through a studio or online sharing

  • Please include a detailed, realistic budget which matches your proposal in Excel format. 

HOW TO APPLY 

  • Fill out the online application form for HATCH Mentoring Award here

  • Fill out the online application form for HATCH Artistic Research Award here

  • Fill out the online application form for HATCH Creation Award here

  • Submit by email relevant examples of work produced to date, and your CV, to programme@danceireland.ie, before the closing date with the subject line ‘[APPLICANT NAME] – HATCH Application 2025 Supporting Material’.

  • All applicants must be a Dance Ireland professional member.  To become a Dance Ireland member, you must be either born or resident in Ireland.  See more about membership here.

  • All membership applications or renewals must allow two weeks in advance of any deadline for processing.  

There is an access budget to support participation in the application process and the programme for artists who need additional support. In terms of the application process, this may include financial support for translation from other languages, Irish Sign Language (ISL) (or other sign languages) interpretation, or transcription of audio and video files. We recommend contacting us at least 3 weeks before the deadline to ensure that we can support as required. 

If you have any questions or difficulty accessing this application or have any additional access needs, please email programme@danceireland.ie  or call us at 01-8558800.  

There will be an online information clinic on Wednesday 19 March at 12pm 
Register your interest here.

ASSESSMENT PROCESS 

Deadline for receipt of application and supporting materials is Friday 4 April at 12pm. 

Decisions will be communicated by the third week of April. 

Proposals will be considered by a panel convened by Dance Ireland, which will include an artist representative as per Dance Ireland policy.