ABOUT THE PROGRAMME
| Key Dates | Eligible countries |
|
UK and six Southeast Asia countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, Viet Nam |
Connections Through Culture (CTC) is a grant programme run by the British Council in the UK and East Asia for the past 16 years to foster international collaborations through arts and culture. The Southeast Asia (SEA) edition of CTC was successfully launched in August 2019, and we have now completed three granting rounds, supporting 34 mobility/online collaborations in 2019 and 38 online collaborations in 2020.
We are delighted to announce that the 4th grant application is open between 6 August - 5 September 2021 and we look forward to receiving your proposals. The primary objective of CTC is to support new connections, exchanges and collaborations between the UK and Southeast Asia that build long-term relationships between artists, cultural professionals, creative practitioners and art and cultural organisations, hubs, networks, and collectives. With global travel in 2021 still highly restricted and uncertain, the CTC grant should be used to develop new and strengthen existing relationships between the UK and Southeast Asia via online/digital means.
The British Council values open, diverse, and inclusive societies and seeks to positively contribute to major global issues like climate change. We strongly encourage applicants, that address themes of equality, diversity, inclusion, or environmental sustainability in their proposals.
What are the available grants?
| UK-SEA Collaboration Grant | UK-SEA Alumni Grants (New!) | |
| Value | Up to £8,000 | Up to £2,000 |
| Purpose | Support online/digital networking and collaboration between the UK and Southeast Asia to develop art and cultural projects together or facilitate skills and knowledge exchange | Support previous CTC UK-SEA grantees to build on the online/digital collaborations from the previous grant projects. These can be follow-up activities, wrap up conversations, or exploration of new collaborative ideas. |
| Who can apply | Open to applicants who have not yet received a CTC UK-SEA grant. | Open to previous CTC UK-SEA grantees (2019 and 2020) who have completed their projects. |
| Open to individual artists, cultural professionals, creative practitioners, or, for cultural organisations, hubs, networks, and collectives based in the UK or in any of the six Southeast Asian countries (Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, and Viet Nam) featured in this programme. | ||
| A UK Lead Applicant must nominate a SEA Counterpart(s), or a SEA Lead Applicant must nominate a UK Counterpart(s). Grants are offered to applicants in all art forms: theatre, dance, visual arts, literature, film, music, architecture, design, and fashion. Inter- and cross-disciplinary practices are encouraged | ||
What are the grants for?
The grant should be used to support the process to develop projects with artistic expression or creativity at the core and that will result in collaborative activities including artistic and creative exchange of either skills, knowledge, and practice or the co-production towards new artistic and creative content. Various approaches can be employed such as art residencies, exhibitions, performances and showcases, publications, webinars, and conferences.
Who is NOT eligible to apply?
- Not for academic institutions
- Not for funding bodies
- Not for organisational overheads and general running costs
- Not for Southeast Asian nationals living outside of Southeast Asia
- Not for UK individuals based/living outside of the United Kingdom unless temporarily living but retaining a home address in the United Kingdom and defined by Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs as ‘resident the in the UK’ for tax – see here.
The Notes for Applicants (downloadable below) provides essential information for your proposal preparation.
The information session is also held in August, aiming to provide further details about the grant. Please click on this link to watch the recording of this information session. You can also follow our Facebook page for further updates.
All applications will be in English and are accepted through the Submittable application site.
For more information, send an email to ctc@britishcouncil.org.
Connections Through Culture UK-Southeast Asia Online Collaboration Grantees, 2021-2022:
We award 37 grant project teams (inclusive of six alumni grants) this year.
Indonesia
| Lead Grantee | Counterpart Grantee | Grant project working title or description |
| Ignatius Susiadi Wibowo on behalf of Labtanya (South Jakarta) | Deveron Projects (Huntly, North East, Scotland) | Our Commons: Food Resources (English) or Harta Kampung Kota Kita (Bahasa Indonesia) |
| Joel Cahen of Newtoy Ltd (Chilham) | Robby Ocktavian of Muarasuara (Samarinda) | Sound Estuary: Workshop and collaborations between sound art practitioners and audiences in Indonesia and in the UK |
| Tesla Manaf Effendi, Kuntari (Bandung) – Alumni Grant | Graham Daniels of Addictive TV (London) | Digital release & online launch event. Artists Kuntari and Addictive TV join forces to release their collaborative project Pararatronic. |
| Mohamad Apie Dhelpilia Suhariyanto and Titis Embun Ayu Winasis on behalf of Pustaka Pias (Bandung) | Maisy Summer of Small Fry Collective (Manchester) | IDENTICAL: Artbook of Minority Communities |
| WOW Foundation (Represented by Laura White, London) | Voice of Baceprot (West Jakarta) | WOW’s Digital Artist in Residence - Voice of Baceprot |
| Zunifah, Jalan Gembira (Yogyakarta) | Fiona Cullinan of Walkspace (Birmingham) | Parallel Walking: Between Here and There, Between the Seen and the Unseen |
Malaysia
| Lead Grantee | Counterpart Grantee | Grant project working title or description |
| Eleena Jamil (Cyberjaya) | Dr. Stephen Knott (London) | About Making: Cross-discipline exploration of different aspects of ‘making’ in art and architecture, |
| Eliza Collin (Lostwithiel) – Alumni Grant | Wendy Teo of Borneo Laboratory (Kuching) | Narratives of Soil: Phase Two: Exploration with practitioners and collaborators established from the first CTC project |
| Abhirami Arumbakkam (Maidenhead) | Sumitra Selvaraj and Dhinesha Karthigesu (Petaling Jaya) | Sarees and Secrets: Series of dialogues between 3 multi-generational and multi-disciplinary artists connected by their common love of the saree |
| Suzanne Lee with Francesca Beard (London) | Priya Kulasagaran (Petaling Jaya) | Safe/Selamat online programme of action research, creative conversation, and exchange |
| Joanne Loo Yingjia (Kuala Lumpur) | Ummi Kalthum Junid (Norwich) | Trash <––> Treasure art residency programme of UK and Malaysia artists |
| Anthony Alexander Chong Vee Yee (Selangor) | Shane Gilchrist (Belfast) | Empowering Deaf Women in Malaysia through Sign Poetry: Training of d/Deaf women from across the Straits on poetry in English and Malaysian Sign Language |
| Kenny Ooi Chia Fu of The Rondo Productions (Penang) | Orchestra of the Swan (Belfast) | Musical Encounter Training for young composers and musicians, between 18 to 26 years old |
Myanmar
| Lead Grantee | Counterpart Grantee | Grant project working title or description |
| Aung Myat Htay (Yangon) | Grace Adam (Suffolk, East Anglia) | The Moments: A collaboration of ideas exchange UK-Myanmar Contemporary Art workshop programme |
| Aung Min (Yangon) | Tony Gammidge (Brighton) | Safe Room: Art for trauma healing sessions and collaborations |
| Andrew Derek Halliday of Phantom Limb Touring (Southampton) | Musica Htet (Yangon) | A Sound Journey to Freedom: Intersectionality of visual and sonic arts |
| Dominique Robert DIllabough-Lefebvre (Cambridge) | Saw Eh Do Wah (Mutraw, Karen State) | Lives across boundaries: Film development project about environmental change and Karen borderlands. |
| Daw Htar Nwe (Yangon) | Jack Jenkins Hill (London) | Memory in Exile: Mixed media online archive of oral histories of diasporic populations in Myanmar |
Philippines
| Lead Grantee | Counterpart Grantee | Grant project working title or description |
| Hannah Morales of Emerging Islands (San Juan, La Union) | Mandy Barker (Leeds) | Plastic Passages: Mapping Our Way Towards Collective Sea Change |
| Joseph Wallace (East Sussex) | Jemina Legaspi (Bocaue, Bulacan) | Environmental Storytelling Through Stop Motion Animation: An exploration of recycled puppetry, sustainable practice, and poetic visions |
| Patricia Mendoza of Matic Hub (Cebu) – Alumni Grant | Gillian Easson on behalf of Creative Dundee (Dundee) | #MaterialsWiki - A Virtual Knowledge Sharing with Arts & Design Students |
| Jerome Dulin of North Luzon Cinema Guild, Inc. (Tuguegarao) | Noémie Mendelle of Scottish Documentary Institute (Edinburgh) | Lenses X Cultures (Lenses Cross Cultures): Creative Documentary Film La |
| Mac Andre Rubio Arboleda (Manila) | April Lin (London) | Toolkits for Counterparts |
Thailand
| Lead Grantee | Counterpart Grantee | Grant project working title or description |
| Piyawat Louilarpprasert (Bangkok) – Alumni Grant | Scott Wilson (Birmingham) | Mutation of Sounds and Dialogues: Connection of Culture and Music Technology |
| Ratchanok Ketboonruand (Chiang Mai) | Carol Sinclair (Angus, Scotland) | Crafting Happiness: Craft and Making for Health and Wellbeing in Thailand and Scotland |
| Chumpon Apisuk (Nan Province) – Alumni Grant | Sinead O'Donnell (Belfast) | Living with Closer Distancing: Activities and activities at the Belfast International Festival of Performance Art (BIFPA), with workshop with students from Bangkok University, Chiangmai University, and Ulster University (Belfast). |
| Weave Artisan Society (Chiang Mai) | Naomi Mcintosh (Crathie, Scotland) | Cross Cultural Tapestry: large scale 3D tapestry annex over a period of 3 months. UK artist collaborating with Thailand local team of weavers. |
| B-Floor Theatre Bangkok (Bangkok) | Patrick J O'reilly of Tinderbox Theatre Company (Belfast) | Digital Playground: Exploring the theme of Climate Change and the Body for physical theatre collaboration exploring climate change effects on the body. |
| Graiwoot Chulphongsathorn (Bangkok) | Philippa Lovatt (St Andrews, Scotland) | Tracing the Anthropocene in Southeast Asian and British Artists' Cinema: Film Screenings and Discussion |
Vietnam
| Lead Grantee | Counterpart Grantee | Grant project working title or description |
| Bui Linh Ha (Hanoi) – Alumni Grant | Esther Swift (Edinburgh, Scotland) | Creative Hosting (to) Access Music: CHẠM (vn for 'touch') – Music and Well-Being project |
| Nhã Thuyên aka Đỗ Thị Thoan (Hanoi) | Alexandra Büchler of Literature Across Frontiers / Llenyddiaeth Ar Draws Ffiniau (Aberystwith, Wales) | Ù Ơ: Digital residency and poetic exchange between emerging Vietnamese and Welsh women poets and artists |
| Vu Thi Phuong Thao on behalf Blue H'mong textile community in Pa Co(Hanoi) | Lola Lely of WAX Atelier co-op (London) | Crafting without Borders: Cross-cultural arts exchange through online workshops between Blue H'mong craftswomen in Viet Nam and craftswomen at WAX Atelier Co-Op in London |
| Trang Trinh (Hanoi) | Caroline Sharp (London) | "My morning song": A cross cultural educational and musical partnership based on Elgar's Chasson de Martin |
| Nguyen Quoc Thanh of Queer Forever! on behalf partners Dinh Thao Linh, Ba-Bau AIR, and Dinh Thi Nhung, A Queer Museum / Ban Lon - Vagina Talks (Hanoi) | Asia Art Activism (London) | Cruising beyond the cloud computing, xuyên không across the sky (thực ra là light speed under the sea): Activities queerness, local and intercultural queerstories, transnational exchange of knowledge and practices |
| Luyen Thi Linh (Hanoi) | Casson & Friends by Tim Casson (Lincolnshire) | The Dance WE Made: Mentoring and performance of 4 Vietnamese dancers (2 disabled and 2 non-disabled) (COVID permitting) in public spaces in Hanoi |
| Chau Quynh Le on behalf of CPED: Center for Cultural Preservation & Economic Development (Hue) | Victoria Elizabeth Roe (London) | Weaving a Better World: Including Craft to Reset Sustainable Fashion based on Ta Oi women’s designs – workshops, manuals, and exchange |
| Tran Viet Huy on behalf of Đà Nẵng tui (Da Nang) | Dylan Jones of The Coracle Society (Cardiff, Wales) | Lênh Đênh - Journey on the Waves of Time: Activities for artists, craftsmen, and fishermen in Vietnam accessing current and historic uses of coracles (thuyền thúng) in Viet Nam and in the UK |