We are delighted to announce our support for the Widening Access bursaries at The Lir Academy at Trinity College Dublin. The bursaries, also supported by Element Pictures, enable people from underrepresented and minority communities to access creative training. Clinch are committed to supporting the arts and we recognise that our creative industries will flourish with a diverse talent pool and inclusive culture.

The Lir Academy delivers conservatoire-level training on the island of Ireland, educating its students on the disciplines of stage and screen. These include acting, technical theatre, creative design and production. These bursaries will support the recipients to take their places on The Lir Academy’s highly competitive Bachelor in Acting or Stage Management & Technical Theatre degrees, while the broader partnership will support the outreach work of The Lir Academy in developing programmes and building networks to encourage more people to pursue their ambition for a creative career.

Speaking on the announcement, Tom Clinch, Managing Director of Clinch Wealth Management noted that “The Lir and their diversity bursary are personally and professionally close to our hearts. We are privileged to advise many of Ireland’s leading theatre and film practitioners, so we are delighted to support the work of the Lir in nurturing the next generation of stage and screen creatives. We also have many family and friendship connections with the sector and it is a pleasure to partner alongside our old friends Gemma Bodinetz in the Lir and Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe of Element Pictures. A healthy society and Arts community thrives on diversity of gender, ethnicity, social background, neurodiversity and disability. So, it is a particular pleasure to support this bursary to foster diversity in The Lir student body.”

The bursary’s first recipient, Lir acting graduate Nathan Patterson, who identifies as neurodivergent, discusses the positive impact of the bursary in the below video.