Little Sparks, an inclusive arts project at Dún Laoghaire Baths 2025

• Access to a studio in dlr Baths from late September 2025 for 12 months.  
• Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council will cover the cost of the studio’s rent and utility bills.  
• Opportunity to create and learn with children from two and a half to seven years of age from Kildarton and Carmona School.  
• Support from the partners, including staff support for sessions with children. 
• A monthly fee of €2,000 to help support the artist/s practice. This is the maximum amount available, it will be divided if more than one artist applies to work together. 
• A materials budget of €5,000 in total.  
• €1,500 towards the cost of training or mentorship. This is to assist the artist/s to develop their collaborative arts practice and think about how it may impact their work. 

• This opportunity is open to professional artists with a multidisciplinary/visual arts practice.  
• We welcome applications from artist/s with experience in creating art with children and especially with children with disabilities.  
• We encourage applications from artists who would like to work together. 
• We welcome artists who represent the diversity of Irish society. We encourage applications from all areas of our community regardless of your gender, sexual orientation, civil or family status, religion, age, disability, race or membership of the Traveller Community, or socio-economic background.  

• We expect the artist/s to be ready to take up this opportunity in late September 2025.  
• We expect artist/s to make good use of the studio for the year.  
• To create a positive, inclusive and welcoming experience over the year for the children, staff and wider public that are involved.  
• To work with the children in Kildarton and Carmona School in their centres and in dlr Baths during the school year (both will shut for July and August 2026 and during school breaks). We want to support the artist/s to learn and explore with the children and staff, we do not expect that there will an outcome like an exhibition.  
• To offer opportunities for the wider community to engage with the artist/s at key points.  We would like the artists/s to chat and let parents and caregivers of the children get involved at least twice over the year. We would like to see inclusive creative experiences for children with disabilities under the age of seven and their families to engage with Cruinniú na nÓg 2026, Coastival 2026, Family Days and so on.   

The studio is on the lower ground floor of the dlr Baths building.  

It has good natural light with large French doors overlooking Dublin Bay and includes the following items: 

• four windows with blinds, 
• overhead skylights, with no blinds,  
• two large sinks, these are at different heights for easy access, 
• a bench for material preparation,  
• storage lockers, 
• tables and chairs, 
• Wi-Fi. 
• 24-hour access.  

The floor is polished concrete with underfloor heating.  It is 42 square metres. 

The maximum amount of people that the room can hold is 66 people standing or 21 people seated.  

There is a changing place toilet on the café level of dlr Baths.  

There is an accessible toilet on the same floor as the studio, this is used by the public.  

There is a tea station for use by studio artists.  

There are three other artist studios on the same floor.  

The Happy Out Café is on the top floor of the building. The artist studios are on the floor below. We advise artists to attend the on-site briefing or drop into the building to consider the noise a busy coffee shop makes. This noise can be heard on the floor below, so may impact your use of the space.   

Artists are not permitted to live or sleep onsite overnight or invite others into the building outside normal operating times. These times can change with the season, but a guide to these times are: 

7am–5pm, Sunday–Wednesday  

7am–10pm, Thursday–Saturday  

Artists must agree to follow the Health and Safety Policy of Dún Laoghaire Baths and work with Council staff, Facility Management Company, and Coffee Shop operator to ensure the safety of artists, building staff and visitors. Council Staff and Facilities Management contractors will have access to your studio to clean and maintain essential equipment. 

Apply online: dlrcoco.submit.com

If you need help with your application or have any access needs, please contact   

Máire Davey by: 

Email mdavey@dlrcoco.ie or telephone (01) 236 2756 

The deadline for questions is 1pm, Friday 8 August. 

The deadline for applications is 1pm, Tuesday 5 September. 

Your application can include written documents, video, or audio files.  

We plan to host a session for you to ask questions and see the studio. We expect this to be the first week in August, if you are interested, please email mdavey@dlrcoco.ie or phone (01) 236 2756 to book a place.