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.
The RDS Student Art Awards has an annual prize fund in excess of €16,000. Encompassing the RDS 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.
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.
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.
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.
Mini Music is an educational music curriculum consisting of instrumental music workshops for junior and senior infants aged between four and seven 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 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”.
