The RDS Foundation Arts programme aims to promote excellence in the Arts, to further the professional development of musicians, artists and craftspeople and to support developmental projects in the arts.
Founded in 1968, with a prize fund in excess of €28,000 spread over 20 categories, the RDS National Crafts Competition is one of Europe’s leading independently adjudicated craft competitions. Since 2008, the Competition has been organised in association with the Crafts Council of Ireland.
The RDS Student Art Awards boast an annual prize fund in excess of €18,400. Encompassing the Taylor Art Award which has been awarded since 1860, the Awards are the most prestigious art awards open to registered art students of all award-bearing courses in Ireland. This year's Competition will mark the 150th Anniversary of the RDS Taylor Art Award.
Music has been a principal focus of the RDS with a long tradition of presenting Chamber Music that dates from 1886 when the Society’s Chamber Music Recitals took place in various Dublin locations including Leinster House, to the RDS Concert Hall which opened in 1925.
Each year the winning and commended entries from the RDS National Crafts Competition and the RDS Student Art Awards tour to venues both north and south of the country. The exhibitions help promote Ireland’s most promising and talented artists and designers to a wider audience.
Monkey Music is an educational programme consisting of instrumental music workshops for junior infants aged between four and six years. Two of Dublin’s inner city schools participate in this programme which provides early exposure to the development of life skills such as self-expression, coordination and memory.
The Royal Dublin Society Equestrian Committee and Committee of Arts have come together to award a design of a feature show jump for the 2010 Dublin Horse Show.
With a prize fund of €10,000, the RDS Music Bursary is one of the largest music bursaries in Europe. The Bursary is intended to enable the winner to further his/her studies at home or abroad to invest in sheet music or a musical instrument.
The premier award of the RDS Student Art Awards is the RDS Taylor Art Award. Awarded annually, the Award is made possible by a bequest made by George Archibald Taylor of Dublin who died in 1854, leaving a sum of £2,000 to his trustees for “the promotion of art and industry in Ireland”.
