British Council’s Connections Through Culture: India-Wales grant to develop new artistic collaborationsbetween India and Wales
New Delhi: The British Council is inviting applications by Individual artists, arts organisations and festivals based in India and Wales to apply for a one-year research and development grant of up to £10,000 by submitting co-created project proposals. Applications for 2020-2021 are open till 14 February 2021. The commissions will be part of the Connections Through Culture: India-Wales grant scheme. The scheme is a joint initiative of the British Council, Wales Arts International and Arts Council Wales to develop cross-cultural creative collaborations and new artistic work between India and Wales.
The grant is designed to support individual artists, arts organisations, and festivals based in India and Wales to co-create new artistic work, embed creative skills and develop capacity and share practice through one-year research and development grant from April 2021 to February 2022. The programme seeks to reflect UK and India’s creative diversity with a specific focus on Wales and India. Artists, arts organisations, and festivals in both countries will benefit from the inspiration gained from exchanging ideas and sharing their cultural history by developing new arts products.Successful applicants are expected to deliver and complete all project activities from April 2021 to February 2022. There are five grants of up to £10,000 available to artists, arts organisations and festivals in Wales and India to research and develop new collaboration projects.
This grant scheme builds on the success of India-Wales, the joint funding programme between British Council and Wales Arts International/Arts Council of Wales, and Wales’ involvement in the UK-India Year of Culture in 2017, that marked the 70 anniversary of independence in India. India Wales was an ambitious programme that supported more than 2000 participants across 13 projectswithin theatre, dance, film, literature, music and visual and applied arts. It engaged more than 80,000 audience members in Wales and India and reached over 4.9 million people through social media.
Jonathan Kennedy, Director Arts India, British Council said; “We aim to strengthen the creative sector between India and the United Kingdom through our strategic programmes in arts and culture, we aim to enable organisations to connect, create and collaborate together. Wales is one of the UK’s important devolved nations, and we have a strong focus in India on the diversity of the UK nations for artists and festivals international partnerships. With Wales Arts International the British Council is delighted to partner to encourage artists and organisations across India to apply for the Connections Through Culture grant.”