Night-Time Economy- After Hours at the Museum Scheme 2026

Museums and galleries have an important role to play in the Night-Time Economy by providing unique spaces/facilities for inclusive and diverse types of cultural activity later into the evening and night. These important cultural spaces in our local communities can help with fostering community engagement, a sense of belonging and can create meaningful experiences.

In 2023, the Department provided funding to the museums and galleries to extend their opening hours to programme events and provide an opportunity to see if there was an appetite in their area for later events. The scheme demonstrated the effectiveness of using these types of cultural spaces at night and proved to be extremely popular with many of the smaller regional museums and galleries around the country who expressed that they would like to do more but would require further support to embed and promote their later evening and night-time programme.

In support of a Night-Time Economy commitment in the Programme for Government, and the ambition of the Night-Time Economy Taskforce who advocated for more diverse and inclusive activity at night that does not centre around the sale and consumption of alcohol, a second iteration of this scheme has been developed.

The scheme will support later openings in local museums and galleries around the country, who are members of the Irish Museums Association and the Museum Standards Programme of Ireland.

In conjunction with this grant scheme, the Department is supporting a 10-month late night Thursday pilot initiative on the last Thursday of the Dublin City in partnership with Dublin City Council, the Dublin City Night-Time Advisor, Fáilte Ireland and Dublin Town. The National Cultural Institutions will take a central leadership role in the programming of diverse cultural events on the last Thursday of the month and will work together to ensure that a good range of events on the night, starting at 5pm and going later into the night. The initiative will be branded and marketed through various social media platforms, digital billboards and radio and will be supported by the partners. Venues taking part in this initiative will be included in all marketing and promotion of the event.

In order to support and boost this initiative, applications from Dublin City Centre venues will be required to programme events to coincide with the late-night Thursday initiative every month which will launch on the last Thursday in April. For the purposes of this scheme, Dublin City Centre is defined as the area bounded by the canals.

- Grants of up to €8,000 will be made available to open later. Applications for funding will be open to museums and galleries that are Institutional members of the Irish Museum Association(IMA) and/or are a member of the Museum Standards Programme for Ireland (MSPI).

- The scheme will operate on a matched funding basis (85:15), where 15% of the proposed costs must be provided by the applicant.

- All grant payments will be made based on paid invoices submitted (matured liabilities basis). Prefunding is not available under this Scheme.

- Applicants must commit to opening after 5pm and stay open until at least 9pm.

- Events do not have to be free of charge. Venues may charge an entry fee, but where possible the costs should be kept low to ensure maximum participation and inclusivity.

- If you are applying from Dublin City, events must coincide with the last Thursday of every month to align with the ‘Dublin by Dusk’ late-night Thursday initiative.

- Applicants are encouraged to use their space in new ways and working with new partners is encouraged to attract new audiences for the museum/gallery space and inspire new uses of existing spaces in the community for late night artists and cultural communities.

- Applications involving partnerships or collaborations will be considered for funding under the scheme.

- Applications for amounts greater than €8k may be considered where a museum or gallery wanted to roll out a more ambitious programme of events.

- There is no minimum or maximum number of events that can be held.

- Applicants may only submit one application to the scheme.

- All events must be open to the public.

- Events which can be funded include but not limited to, late evening or night tours, live music, live DJ, dancing (performative or participatory!), exhibitions, poetry readings, comedy shows, theatre, film, live podcasts, storytelling, classes and wellbeing initiatives.

- Programmes must be advertised locally through various channels to ensure maximum visibility. The Department’s support must be acknowledged in all public advertising.

- To assist with the promotion of the late-night Thursday initiative, additional marketing support and promotion will be made available for successful venues in Dublin city. Please contact nte.museumscheme@ccs.gov.ie for further information. If successful further information will be supplied in relation to marketing and advertising.

- Events cannot be in receipt of any other public funding.

- All successful Grantees will be required to fill out an evaluation questionnaire in relation to this scheme when drawing down funds. This will allow the D/CCS to evaluate the effectiveness of the funding and also to gain learnings from the pilot.

Please note: All relevant planning and licensing requirements must be in place.

All applications received will be considered and assessed. The criteria to be used in this regard may include, but not be limited to, the following:

- Eligbility – applicants must be a member of MSPI or IMA

- The extent to which the project meets the criteria of the scheme

- Quality of the project

- Whether the project is realistic in terms of scale, costs, assistance sought and timeframe for delivery

- Value for money.

Costs covered include but not limited to:

• Tour Guides
• Late night staff costs
• Security Costs
• Event insurance
• Artist’s, speakers, performers, guides fees/costs etc. (artists/performers must be paid)
• set-up/staging costs
• AV costs and equipment hire
• Marketing and Advertising

It is envisaged that at least 50% of the funding will be used to support event costs with the balance towards operational costs.

Costs not covered include but not limited to:

• Food and drink (including alcohol)
• Charity/fundraising events
• Purchase or repair of equipment
• Transport costs (i.e. minibus hire for patrons)*
• Accommodation*
• Utilities
• Construction or structural changes to venue
• Legal and accountancy feeds
• Cash payments (Invoiced expenditure paid by electronic transfer is required for audit purposes)

(*Artists may include travel and subsistence costs as part of their overall invoice to the venue, which is eligible for funding. Separate receipts for fuel/transport/accommodation/food will not be considered for funding.)

Please ensure that you have read these guidelines thoroughly before starting your application.

You can apply via an online application form which can be found here.

* Click on the 'Start New Application' button and complete the form. In submitting the application, the applicant will be confirming that the application being made meets the criteria set out in the Guidelines for the Scheme.

* Applicants should ensure that their application form is completed in full and the additional documentation is submitted with the application. The applicant will be required to confirm a number of items on a checklist in the application form before submitting the application, including confirmation that the application is in line with the criteria set out in the Guidelines for the scheme.

* A confirmation email will issue detailing your application and your reference number. Please contact the Department at NTE.Museumscheme@ccs.gov.ie if you do not receive a confirmation email.

* Applicants may save a draft version of their applications before they submit their final application form – but please note that drafts will not be considered for approval. The onus is on the applicant to ensure their application has been submitted.

* Submission of false or misleading information to the Department at any stage is treated very seriously. Any business that does not comply with the terms and conditions of the scheme may have their grant withdrawn or be required to repay all or part of a grant and/or be barred from making applications for a period of time.

* For any queries on the application process, please email NTE.museumscheme@ccs.gov.ie

The Scheme will open for applications at noon on 10th April 2026 and will close at 5pm 7th May 2026. Applications must include a clear description of the proposed cultural activities and lay out the timeline for each cultural event proposed. All cultural activities must take place before 12th November 2026 and all funds must be drawn down by no later than the 27th November 2026 to ensure payment.

For more information on how to avail of this please contact us at NTE.museumscheme@ccs.gov.ie

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2014, details contained in applications and supporting documents may, on request, be released to third parties. If there is information contained in your application which is sensitive, please identify it and provide an explanation as to why it should not be disclosed. If a request to release sensitive information under the legislation is received, you will be consulted before a decision is made whether or not to release the information. However, in the absence of the identification of particular information as sensitive, it may be disclosed without any consultation with you.

The Department of Culture, Communications and Sport is the grant aiding Authority for the Scheme and confirms that it will respect the monitoring and reporting obligations in relation to State Aid.

The aid being sought is provided under the European Commission Regulation on De Minimis Aid. Small amounts of State aid, up to 300,000 Euros in any three-year period to any one enterprise, are regarded as too small to significantly affect trade or competition in the common market. Such amounts are regarded as falling outside the category of State aid that is banned by the EC Treaty and can be awarded without notification to or clearance by the European Commission. A Member State is required to have a mechanism to track such aid (called 'De Minimis aid') and to ensure that the combined amount of De Minimis aid payments from all sources to one enterprise in any three-year period respects the 300,000 Euro ceiling. Applicants will be asked to provide details of all other De Minimis aid which has been granted to their business within the past three years. It should be noted that a false declaration by a company resulting in the threshold of 300,000 Euro being exceeded could later give rise to the aid being recovered with interest.

All ‘After Hours at the Museum Scheme’ funding is De Minimis Aid and applicants will also be asked to acknowledge that After Hours at the Museum Scheme’ 2026 is being offered under De Minimis Aid by declaring that they wish to apply for ‘After Hours at the Museum Scheme’ under the De Minimis Regulation (EU) 2023/2831 of 13 December 2023.

The Department is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy and employs appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your information from unauthorised access.

The Department will not process your personal data for any purpose other than that for which they were collected. Personal data may be exchanged with other Government Departments, local authorities, agencies under the aegis of the Department, or other public bodies, in certain circumstances where this is provided for by law.

The Department will only retain your personal data for as long as it is necessary for the purposes for which they were collected and subsequently processed.

When the business need to retain this information has expired, it will be examined with a view to destroying the personal data as soon as possible, and in line with Department policy. Further information on Data Protection can be found on our website at: https://www.gov.ie/en/organisation-information/023ba-data-protection/

Who can appeal:

An appeal may be made by an applicant if the applicant considers that the process for reviewing their application was not adhered to. The applicant must be in receipt of a decision email from the Night-Time Economy Unit in order to make an appeal.

How you can appeal:

An appeal must be made within 5 working days of the date on the decision email. It is necessary to clearly set out the grounds for your appeal in an email which should be sent to the Night-Time Economy Unit Appeals Officer at NTE.museumscheme@ccs.gov.ie stating “Appeal” along with your application number in the subject line of the email.