Reference Project Lighthouse
Job Type Visionary Artists
Closing Date 1 August 2025
What is Project Lighthouse?
Project Lighthouse is a 12-month cross-border, cross-community peacebuilding project that uses the power of arts to explore what the process of peace means to young people born after the Good Friday agreement.
In a world where the shorelines of peace are unsettled, the lighthouse becomes a powerful symbol, not just of safety, but reaching across distances to guide people home to celebrate difference on shared ground. Together with our partners at the Hawk’s Well Theatre and the John and Pat Hume Foundation, we are exploring how young people today can develop a roadmap to peace through their experience and response to conflict and how that roadmap can light the way for others.
Project Lighthouse is grounded in the principles of cultural democracy, the belief that everyone has the right not only to access culture, but to create it, shape it and see their identities reflected within it. This project places young people at the centre as co-creators, not just participants and invites artists to facilitate spaces where new cultural narratives can emerge from the ground up. We value lived experience, shared authorship and inclusive practice that redistributes creative power making space for multiple truths, voices and common ground.
This shared island initiative is part of a wider commitment to making art accessible to all for generations to come and hopes for the promotion of a peaceful society.
Project Lighthouse supports 30 young adults (aged 18–25) our “Cultural Champions” through a dynamic creative and social process rooted in mutual understanding, dialogue and collaboration.
The project unfolds in two phases:
- Phase 1: This Is Me
Participants reside cross-border in each other’s communities for two weeks, working with local changemakers, artists and educators to explore identity, belonging, conflict and peace. Together, they develop a performance responding to their experience. - Phase 2: This Is Us
Artists will co-create a new performance script shaped by the group’s experiences, which will be professionally staged in both counties and broadcast to a wide audience
Project Lighthouse will also produce a documentary, digital education pack and a peacebuilding resource for schools and communities.
About the Artist Residencies
We are seeking two socially engaged artists — one based in the Republic of Ireland and one in Northern Ireland to join Project Lighthouse as lead artists for this major peace and arts initiative.
The appointed artists will:
Design and deliver a participatory creative process that responds to Project themes Recruit and mentor 15 Cultural Champions in their region (with support from partners) Facilitate workshops, creative development and co-creation of public performances Collaborate with the wider project team including filmmakers, educators and peacebuilders Contribute to legacy materials (film, education pack, documentation).
Who Should Apply?
We welcome proposals from artists who:
- Have a strong track record in socially engaged, community or youth-led work.
- Understand the cultural and political sensitivities of cross-border collaboration.
- Demonstrate artistic excellence and experience in co-creation with communities.
- Can commit to delivery between September 2025 and September 2026.
To apply
Read more details about the residency, and how to apply, at the Millennium Forum website below.
Socially Engaged Artist (Residency)
Important Notes
This is a Call for Quotations, not a public tender.
Hawk’s Well Theatre reserves the right not to appoint or to re-advertise.
All applicants must comply with PEACEPLUS funder visibility requirements.
This initiative is co-funded by the European Union and the United Kingdom Government under the PEACEPLUS Programme.
Application Deadline – August 1st 2025, 5pm
