About the Programme

British Council in Taiwan launches the "Connections through Culture" Grants in 2019. This programme aims to develop exciting cultural collaborations between artists and arts organisations, also to support long-lasting relationships between Taiwan and the UK. Celebrating the diverse cultural scenes in Taiwan and the UK, the programme offers support, information, advice, networking opportunities and development grants to artists and arts organisations. Artists and arts organisations can both benefit from the inspiration gained from exchanging ideas and sharing their cultural history. The "Connections through Culture" Grants is organised by British Council in Taiwan with supports from the National Culture and Arts Foundation. 

Prior to Covid-19, funding was provided for international travel to further face-to-face discussions needed to develop projects beyond initial expressions of interest between two partners. However, with current travel restrictions and continued uncertainty, the 2020-2021 grants are now used to support online collaboration projects between Taiwan and the UK.  

 

Programme Details

  • Collaboration Grants are offered to support online projects between Taiwan and the UK. To encourage more innovative and creative collaborations and works during these challenging times due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the value of each grant for the Round 5 has been increased to £3,200 (or equivalent monetary value in Taiwan Dollars) per project. 
  • The grant should be used to develop and strengthen new and existing relationships between the UK and Taiwan for new digital/online networking and art and cultural projects through various conversation or different platforms.
  • Grants are offered to artists / organisations working in the following areas including drama, dance, visual arts, literature, film, music, architecture, design, and fashion.

 

For more information, please download the "notes for applicants " document at our "Download" section.

Please complete the 'Connections through Culture' online application form according to the 'open for application' date and upload your CV and a letter of support from a confirmed host arts organisation or artist.

Please contact us via 'Connections through Culture' email if you have any questions.

British Council reserves right to further changes.

Round 1: "Connections through Culture" Grants (Submission for Round 1 grant is closed)

  • Open for Application: 1 July, 2019
  • Application Closing Date: 2 August, 2019
  • Results out: 2 September, 2019

The grant will be used to support the exchange between October to December 2019. Each applicant (organisation) will be required to share feedback on their visit.

Round 1: "Connections through Culture" Grantees: 

  Genre Project
1 Film and Media Arts Taiwanese sound and multimedia artists’ exchange with Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival in the UK. Check out the website for information about workshops and performances.
2 Theatre UK producer and artist to visit Taiwan to explore and learn more about traditional Taiwanese theatre making

Round 2: "Connections through Culture" Grants (Submission for Round 2 grant is closed)

  • Open for Application: 30 September, 2019
  • Application Closing Date:1 November, 2019
  • Results out: 2 December, 2019

The grant will be used to support the exchange between January to March 2020. Each applicant (organisation) will be required to share feedback on their visit.

Round 2: "Connections through Culture" Grantees: 

  Genre Project
1 Architecture London Festival of Architecture to work with arts centres and organisations in Taiwan to build international networks and facilitate exchanges.

Click to read about LFA Programme Manager Andre Holmqvist’s February visit to Taiwan.
2 Performing Arts Taiwan independent producer to visit the UK, aiming to establish Outdoor Arts Network Asia between Taiwan and the UK.
Due to international travel restrictions caused by Covid-19 pandemic, this UK-TW collaboration has now turned into three online interviews: Creating Outdoor Arts – Walk the Plank's Liz Pugh on essentials and risks. Outdoor arts bring people together to places in making lifetime memories. One of UK's finest and creative companies, Walk the Plank has been at it for over three decades. Creative producer Liz Pugh talks about the fundamentals, the people skills, the variable, managing crowds and risks.
Please view the interview clips here: Interview part I, Interview part II, Interview part III.
3 Arts and Cultural Exchange Programme UK Artistic Director Kevin Ryan visited Taiwan to undertake a combined residency, exhibition and project develop initiative with and facilitated through Siao-Long Cultural Park in Tainan City. Check out here for information about the exhibition: Dispelling Epidemics and Bringing Blessings ‘Siao-Long Siang Ke’. 

Round 3: "Connections through Culture" Grants (Submission for Round 3 grant is closed)

  • Open for Application: 30 December, 2019
  • Application Closing Date: 2 February, 2020
  • Results out: 2 March, 2020

The grant will be used to support the exchange between April to June 2020. Each applicant (organisation) will be required to share feedback on their visit.

Round 3: "Connections through Culture" Grantees: 

  Genre Project
1 Theatre A theatre director from Taiwan to conduct a field research in the UK on British Queer Culture of the 80's in preparation of next theatre production.
Due to international travel restrictions caused by Covid-19 pandemic, this UK-Taiwan collaboration turned into an online exchanges and development to prepare for immersive production 'Chroma: A Derek Jarman Project'.
2 Festivals A UK artistic director's research visit to meet and see the work of Indigenous Taiwanese artists and arts organisations with a view to programming the next festival in London. 
Due to international travel restrictions caused by Covid-19 pandemic, this UK-TW collaboration has now turned into an online exhibition to showcase Resurgence and Solidarity: Indigenous Taiwanese Women’s Art to the UK audience.

Round 4: "Connections through Culture" grant (Submission for Round 4 grant is closed)

  • Open for Application: 10 November 2020
  • Application Closing Date: 1 December 2020 (23:59 UK time)
  • Results out: by end of December 2020

The online collaborations/projects will need to be completed between January to July 2021. Each applicant (organisation) will be required to share feedback on their online collaborations/projects afterwards.

  Applicants Genre Project
1 Manchester Camerata Music Music in Mind Remote: an online training programme to help train people to care for people with dementia through music.
Click and view the blogs and videos for Manchester Camerata’s first-ever international online Music in Mind training course with National Symphony Orchestra in Taiwan. 
2 Tzu-Huan Lin Video Online residency – Into the Blue: Point Nemo
This residency has an online studio accessible to the public. This includes Lin’s previous projects, work in progress and research materials. Lin also publishes the development process, which consists of documentation (images, audio and video clips), video footage, and sketches. 
3 Resident Island Dance Theatre Dance <Ice Age> work in progress – Online collaboration residency
4 Mark Nixon, Viliina Koivisto Arts installations The Living Lantern: Facebook account; The Living Lantern: Instagram account
A digital edition that allows people to experience the Living Lantern through their smartphone via Augmented Reality. Anyone with a Facebook or Instagram account can place the artwork directly in front of them and observe it from multiple angles via their screen. The experience can then be shared through their social media account.

Round 5: "Connections through Culture" grant (Submission for Round 5 grant is closed)

  • Open for Application: 5 January 2021
  • Application Closing Date: 26 January 2021 (23:59 UK time)
  • Results out: by end of February 2021
  • Grant value: £3,200 (or equivalent monetary value in Taiwan Dollars)

The online collaborations/projects will need to be completed between March to September 2021. Each applicant (organisation) will be required to share feedback on their online collaborations/projects afterwards.

  Applicants Genre Project
1 Cove Park Residency Programme Supporting Creative Ageing Through Residencies
2 Yao-wen Hsu Film

UK-Taiwan Slow Films Programme 'Islands: Taiwan-UK Moving Image Festival'
Taiwan and the United Kingdom are island nations. During these strange times of isolation caused by Covid-19, our own sense of island-living has come to the fore; so too has our need to communicate. In August 2021, we invite you to embark on journeys to the islands of others and to share in an exchange with people and cultures on the far side of the world. 
3 Belfast Photo Festival Visual Arts

Future(s) - What kind of world do we want to collectively create? 
Taiwan experts and participants in the festival:
1. Talk: ‘On My Mind’ Curator Talk by Liang-Pin Tsao, founder of Lightbox Photo Library
2. Online Portfolio Review with Chao-Yi Tsai (Chief Curator, Research and Development Division, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts),  Ricky Wang (Director of AKI Gallery) and Chao-Liang Shen (Photographer / Professor of National Taiwan University of Arts)
4 Ting Shuo Hear Say Sound Arts

《Elastic Parallels》Compilation album featuring three remote collaborations between female UK/Taiwan artist pairs between May – August 2021.

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