At TikTok, we understand how important arts and culture is for enriching, nourishing, and illuminating our communities. Our goal is to inspire creativity and to bring joy, so we recognise the vital role which community organisations, their workers, and volunteers play in bringing communities together, inspiring creativity, promoting diversity and inclusion, and much more.

That is why we are delighted to announce that TikTok and St Patrick’s Festival have partnered to launch the St. Patrick’s Festival x TikTok Creative Fund. This creative initiative will see a fund of €100,000 be distributed across Irish community organisations and groups who connect with, empower, and uplift their communities through arts, culture, and creativity.

This community-based initiative will see the fund, which is designed to support and inspire creativity, distributed to ten community groups who will each receive a creative project award of €10,000 to develop and deliver creative responses to their own unique community challenges.

These groups can be community and voluntary organisations, charities and social enterprises who use artistic and cultural interventions as a tool to connect, enhance and inspire their communities. This fund forms part of the €500,000 commitment made by TikTok earlier this year to support the St Patrick’s Festival, which took place virtually.

Supporting Creative Communities

The ten successful community groups will be selected for their outstanding work in using artistic and cultural interventions as a tool to connect, enhance and inspire their local communities.

The ten successful groups will each receive €10,000 to develop and deliver creative responses to the unique challenges that community organisations, workers and volunteers face in their communities. St. Patrick’s Festival will be there supporting each group on every step of their artistic journey, from selection right through to the presentation of their final creative project.

TikTok Masterclass

In addition to receiving the bursary, the successful groups will also be invited to participate in a special community focused TikTok masterclass, where they can develop and enhance their storytelling skills through the TikTok platform and learn how best to harness the potential of social storytelling to communicate with their audiences. These groups will also have the opportunity to learn more about building awareness and showcasing their work, as well as inspiring participation and driving fundraising.

The ten community groups will also be encouraged to work with local artists, arts workers, arts organisations, live events crews, and creative professionals, who can provide organisations with the supports, skills, and learnings they need to progress their creative project.

It is hoped that the creative project award will support the recovery and reconnection of the groups after a challenging period due to the pandemic and will help to ensure the continued development and delivery of artistic, cultural, and creative projects in communities throughout Ireland.

Cormac Keenan, Head of Trust and Safety at TikTok, said:

“At TikTok, our goal is to inspire creativity and bring joy to the communities that engage on our platform, each and every day. Since establishing operations in Ireland, a huge priority for us has been continuously looking for ways to nurture our creators and the communities in which they belong. We see this fund helping to provide the tools and resources required to support well-needed community initiatives across Ireland and reawaken creativity after an uncertain and turbulent period.

Our goal is to encourage and connect the wider Irish creative community via the TikTok platform by sharing their work and inspiring others."

Anna McGowan, Interim Director of St. Patrick’s Festival, said:

“St. Patrick’s Festival are delighted to continue our partnership with TikTok through the St. Patrick’s Festival x TikTok Creative Fund, a celebration of the exceptional work undertaken by voluntary and community organisations throughout Ireland. Creativity and art have been crucial in helping us all navigate these past 18 months, and it’s been so inspiring to see how community and voluntary organisations, charities and social enterprises have continued to connect with their communities through art and creativity despite the huge challenges they faced.

“Through the St. Patrick’s Festival x TikTok Creative Fund, we want to recognise and celebrate this remarkable work through meaningful investment in creative community projects that will bring connection, understanding and joy to many communities across Ireland.”

Applications for the St. Patrick’s Festival x TikTok Creative Fund are now open at www.stpatricksfestival.ie. The closing date for entry is October 24th 2021, with the ten successful groups being unveiled in early November 2021. The artistic journey of each community group, from selection through to the presentation of their creative project, will be captured and shared on both St. Patrick’s Festival and TikTok platforms. A selection of work will also be showcased to Ireland and the world during the national St. Patrick’s Festival in March 2022.