Education ministers on both sides of the border have announced an expansion of the cross-border arts education initiative that pairs schools with professional creative practitioners. The Creative Connections programme, which brings artists, musicians, and performers into classrooms to support disadvantaged pupils, will enter its next phase for the 2026/27 academic year with expressions of interest opening today.
The pilot scheme, launched in February 2025, has already partnered 20 schools from Northern Ireland with 20 from Ireland, alongside 40 creative practitioners. It now seeks to recruit additional institutions to join collaborative clusters that embed creativity—spanning art, music, drama, and literature—into everyday teaching and learning.
Ministers Welcome Cross-Border Expansion
Education Minister Paul Givan and Minister for Education and Youth Hildegarde Naughton jointly announced the expansion as part of the Shared Island Initiative, which tackles educational disadvantage through North-South cooperation.
Paul Givan said:
“Creative Connections offers schools a valuable opportunity to explore learning in ways that are imaginative, inclusive and engaging, supporting wellbeing for children and young people. It offers opportunities that support schools to work with professional creative practitioners and with one another across countries. The programme helps foster innovation, shared learning and stronger connections between educational communities and offers opportunities that young people may not otherwise experience.
“It is encouraging to hear the positive impact that the programme has had to date and I am pleased to support this next phase of the programme. I have no doubt it will create further opportunities for children and young people across Northern Ireland and Ireland and I would encourage schools to express an interest in participating.”
Hildegarde Naughton said:
“Creative Connections is a powerful example of how creativity can enrich teaching and learning and open new opportunities for children and young people.
“I am pleased to see the continued expansion of the Creative Connections programme now expanding on an all-island basis, through the Shared Island Initiative, bringing schools together from across Northern Ireland and Ireland through creativity, collaboration and the arts. This next phase will help strengthen connections between school communities, support children and young people to express themselves, and ensure Being Creative, a key competency in curriculum from Primary school through to Senior cycle continues to play an important role in education.”
Cluster Model and Residency Support
Creative Connections operates through a cluster model, linking schools across the border to form professional learning communities. Participating institutions receive:
- Substitution cover for teachers to attend professional learning events
- Funded travel and materials budgets for creative residencies
- Support for two in-school residencies with professional creative practitioners
- Opportunities to collaborate with partner schools in the other jurisdiction
The initiative complements the broader RAISE programme (Raising Achievement and Improving School Engagement), a £20 million/€24 million place-based intervention targeting 18 deprived localities across Northern Ireland. While RAISE focuses on locality-led projects and home-school-community connections, Creative Connections specifically targets arts-based learning as a mechanism for addressing disadvantage.
Expressions of Interest Open Until 6 May
Schools wishing to participate in the 2026/27 academic year must submit expressions of interest by 6 May 2026.
Guidelines and application forms are available through the Department of Education’s Creative Connections page. Schools can direct enquiries to:
- Northern Ireland: tpl@education-ni.gov.uk
- Republic of Ireland: creativity@traleeesc.ie
Funding Pressures and Sustainability Questions
The expansion arrives against a complex backdrop of educational inequality and constrained arts funding. The Northern Ireland Audit Office has previously identified persistent attainment gaps between pupils entitled to free school meals and their peers, with educational disadvantage deeply linked to social deprivation. Meanwhile, the Arts Council of Northern Ireland has faced significant budgetary pressures, with exchequer funding declining to £9.7 million in 2023—representing a real-terms reduction of nearly £10 million since 2011.
This juxtaposition raises questions about sustainability. While Creative Connections receives support through the Irish Government’s Shared Island Fund, the broader arts infrastructure in Northern Ireland remains under severe strain, with just 23 arts organisations currently receiving direct exchequer support through the Arts Council’s annual funding programme.
The programme’s focus on “Being Creative”—a key skill in both the Northern Ireland and Irish curricula—aligns with research from the Educational Research Centre highlighting the importance of creative thinking competencies. However, the relatively modest scale of expansion (12 additional schools in this phase) may limit its impact across the 18 RAISE localities and five participating Irish border counties (Donegal, Louth, Leitrim, Monaghan, and Cavan).
Questions for Stakeholders
- Given the Arts Council NI’s budget constraints and reduced funding for arts organisations, how sustainable is this expansion without broader investment in the arts infrastructure that supports such programmes?
- With only 12 additional schools being added in this phase, how will the Department ensure equitable access across the 18 RAISE localities and five Irish border counties?
- How will the programme measure tangible outcomes in educational attainment for disadvantaged pupils beyond subjective wellbeing indicators?
- Will early years settings be included in future phases, given research showing the critical importance of early intervention in addressing educational disadvantage?
Timeline and Selection Process
The current call for expressions of interest closes on 6 May 2026. Schools selected for the programme will commence activities for the 2026/27 academic year, with cross-border cluster activities continuing through the year. The initiative represents a rare example of functional cross-border educational cooperation at a time when institutional barriers continue to limit student mobility between the two jurisdictions.
Observers will be watching closely to see whether this pilot can demonstrate measurable improvements in pupil outcomes—and whether its funding model might offer a template for sustaining arts education despite broader budgetary pressures in Northern Ireland.