Art and Culture - British Council Italy

Milan, 18 April 2012: Stephen Benians (left), British Council Director Programmes, presenting the New Connections Award to the UK author and actor Kwame Kwei-Armah (right) for his valuable contribution in developing closer relations between Italy and the UK.

NEW CONNECTIONS: OUR WORK IN ARTS

New Connections is the British Council’s arts programme, offering a series of inspirational events that create new connections between top talents from the UK and audiences in Italy. Innovation, Creativity and Excellence – the three values that underpin this programme.

New Connections is a journey – across Italy, across the UK, across business ideas and networks underlying the creative and cultural sectors, and across artistic disciplines. Our core offer includes events in Music, Literature, Film, Dance, Theatre, Architecture and Design, Visual Arts and the business of Creativity.

New Connections runs in collaboration with partners and artists in Italy and the UK who help create the inspirational events and support emerging talents.

The New Connections Award is offered to those partners and artists the British Council in Italy recognises as making a valuable contribution in fostering closer cultural relations between the two countries. Find out more.

contact us at: arte@britishcouncil.it

our work in the arts

The British Council works in collaboration with partners and artists in Italy and the UK who help create inspirational events and support emerging talents.

Our current arts project is called New Connections. For an overview, see the column on the left, information on our work in specific disciplines is given below.

Are you interested in experiencing UK Art in Italy? See our current events in Italy

Our New Connections Recognition Award Scheme is presented to artists and organisations who develop cultural relations between UK and Italy.

Looking for funding to bring an artist based in England to Italy? Find out about the Artists International Development Fund run in collaboration with Arts Council England.

NEW CONNECTIONS IN MUSIC

Mo Enrico Bettinello, was part of the British Council delegation to the Huddersfield Festival (16-25 November) and the London Jazz Festival (9-18 November).

British Council collaborated with Xplosiva, pioneering contemporary ‘pre-pop’ event organisers, on bringing the best of UK electronic music and 19 UK artists, to the Club To Club Festival in Turin, November 2012

Emufest the International Festival for Electroacustic Music organised by Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia, took place in October. Denis Smalley, Professor Emeritus at City University London and composer specialising in electroacoustic music, participated.

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT WHAT WE DO IN MUSIC

NEW CONNECTIONS IN LITERATURE

Talents of the new and contemporary UK Literature on tour in Italy:

Welsh Children’s poet laureate Eurig Salisbury, Mantova Literature Festival, September 2012.
Read Cwlwm (Knot), a poem by Eurig Salisbury written in his mother-tongue of Welsh with an English translation.

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT WHAT WE DO IN LITERATURE

NEW CONNECTIONS IN THEATRE

We are entering year 2 of the Short Latitudes project: Theatre Workshops with UK playwrights and Mise en Espace in Lombardy and Puglia, in partnership with Associazione Kiwi and Teatro Pubblico Pugliese respectively.

Creative Conversations (in Theatre): Arne Pohlmeier, director of Two Gents Production,in conversation with Prof. Enrico Reggiani of Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore and Prof. Margaret Rose of Università degli Studi di Milano, on Geopolitical Shakespeare, Theatre and intercultural dialogue

KUPENGA KWA HAMLET: for the first time in Italy, the Two Gents Productions presents this unique version of "Hamlet", in the twilight of a pre-colonial Zimbabwe

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT WHAT WE DO IN THEATRE

NEW CONNECTIONS IN CREATIVITY

This strand of New Connections deals with the buzz behind the scenes – the business of creativity. We bring together young innovators and cultural entrepreneurs to share new ideas on the business of the creative economy. The talents we bring together are at the nexus of science, business and culture.

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT WHAT WE DO IN CREATIVITY

NEW CONNECTIONS IN FILM

We propose a great opportunity to co-create a film festival dedicated to new UK talents: deciding together theme and format, with British Council film experts selecting most outstanding pieces and a local partner delivering the event.

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT WHAT WE DO IN FILM

NEW CONNECTIONS IN ART

The British Council possesses the British Council Arts Collection, one of the largest private art collections in the world. Following the phenomenal success of our Passports exhibition at the PAC in Milan in 2010, we would be happy to discuss with partners the creation of a public or private art exhibition using our own artworks.

Jeremy Deller has been selected to represent Britain at the 55th Venice Biennale.

UK-based collective Auto Italia South East presented their latest commission for Artissima Lido on the 8th of November.

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT WHAT WE DO IN ART

NEW CONNECTIONS IN ARCHITECTURE

Since 1938 the British Council has been responsible for the British Pavilion in Venice, showing British artists at the longest-running, most prestigious international art biennial in the world: the Venice Biennale of Art.
With Venice Takeaway the UK showed proposals for British architecture inspired by an ambitious global research project.

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT WHAT WE DO IN ARCHITECTURE

new connections in dance

Four UK theatre groups took part at the Teatro a Corte festival in July, which features theatre and dance in Turin and Piemonte.

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT WHAT WE DO IN DANCE