UK bilateral arts grant to seed cultural exchanges from Malaysia

APPLICATIONS for the latest round of the British Council’s Connections Through Culture (CTC) are opened until September 5, 2021. 

The arts grant is a first-of-its-kind project to spark innovative ways for participants from six Southeast Asian countries and the UK to collaborate through the arts, it said in a press release.

The programme is a bilateral grants programme designed to seed exciting cultural exchanges between artists and arts organisations, and nurture cooperation and long-lasting relationships between the United Kingdom and for 2021-2022, six Southeast Asian countries: Indonesia, Myanmar, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.

Alongside similar initiatives across East Asia, artists, arts professionals, and art group/collective representatives from the six countries and the UK are eligible to apply for the online grants valued from up to £8,000 (about RM46,805).

A new alumni category is also opened for previous CTC UK-SEA grantees, with a value up to £2,000. Grantees from Southeast Asia and the UK may use the fund for platforms and conversations to meet with specialists, peers in the field, and other participants based in the UK and Southeast Asia between October 2021 to February 2022.

Successful grantees of the 2021-2022 round will be announced end of September 2021. Initiated in August 2019, the primary objective is to support exchanges and collaborations between the UK and Southeast Asia.

Before Covid-19, this would have most likely involved international travel. However, with travel restricted and uncertain, the CTC grants will be used to develop and strengthen new and existing relationships between the UK and Southeast Asia, by providing funding to allow conversations to happen and for the possibilities of online collaboration to be explored.

To apply, visit https://www.britishcouncil.my/programmes/arts/work/ctc/call-grant-2021 – The Vibes, August 7, 2021