Indian arts organisations and creative professionals connect with Wales and Northern Ireland through the British Council

Delhi: The British Council, today, announced the winners of its Connections Through Culture grants from India, Wales and Northern Ireland. For the year 2021-22, British Council has shortlisted 11 recipients from across India. As per the final selection, Indian artists, arts organisation and festivals will create new projects with the total of 6 Welsh and 5 Northern Irish counterparts.

The British Council’s Connections Through Culture grants aim to promote arts and cultural exchange between the UK and India, through co-creation of projects, for creative innovators in the countries. As part of British Council's Festivals for the Future programme in India, at present, the grant supports 16 artistic collaboration and exchange programmes between creative professionals, arts organisations and festivals across India, with partners from Wales and Northern Ireland.

The Northern Ireland grant is intended to provide support to successful applicants for a period of three years, with the first year reserved for research and development, and the other two years will include production and festivals touring. At the outset, due to Covid-19, the projects will be carried forward online in the first year. Whereas the India-Wales grant is intended to provide support to applicants for a period of one year.

The scheme is designed to enhance creative capabilities and develop capacity for artists and festivals in India and its partners, to build long-lasting relationships between the two geographies. Celebrating the varied cultural connections and traditions, grantees from India will gain from collaboration with Wales and Northern Ireland.

Talking specifically about Northern Ireland, the collaborations come at the beginning of a long-term exchange between creative professionals and arts organisations from the two countries.

As for India’s creative partnership with Wales, this grants scheme is an opportunity to build on the success of the India and Wales long-standing cultural relations, the joint funding programme between the British Council and Wales Arts International/Arts Council of Wales. Wales’ involvement in the UK-India Year of Culture in 2017, marked the 70th Anniversary of independence in India. The India-Wales programme has supported 13 projects with over 2000 participants, to deliver creative outcomes in the form of film, theatre, literature, dance, music and applied and visual arts. The programme has seen a reach of about 4.9 million over social media channels and has engaged about 80,000 audience members across India and Wales.

Barbara Wickham OBE, Director, British Council India said: “We are delighted to announce the recipients of the Connections Through Culture grants for India with Northern Ireland and Wales. Having received some amazing applications, we are excited to see the development of this collection of terrific arts and culture projects come to life. The grants aim to build imaginative bridges between India and the United Kingdom and to strengthen the development of culture and the creative economy, especially between artists and arts festivals. As we look toward India’s 75th anniversary of Independence in 2022 these projects will enable artists, arts organisations and festivals across the nations to connect, create and collaborate.’’

The British Council showcases the best of the UK‘s arts and culture overseas. The Connections through Culture grants are part of its ambition to promote mutual and equitable collaboration between artists in India and Wales and Northern Ireland, and to provide new platforms to promote the culture and creativity of both countries to international audiences.