Creative Collaboration: Major arts initiative rolls out across Europe

Following a series of workshop sessions held by the British Council in 2007-2008 creative professionals from around the region were invited to work together to create cross-border art projects between South East Europe and the UK.

Seventeen large and 11 smaller scale projects have now been developed to form Creative Collaboration, these include performances, publications, exhibitions, installations, networks, websites and workshops.

Examples include:

Tales from the Bar of Lost Souls, an inspiring, new piece of theatre produced by the National Theatre of Greece, Cyprus Theatre Organisation and UK theatre company Imitating the Dog which will be performed in all 3 countries by 2010.

Word Express, a series of train journeys undertaken by writers and translators from different countries starting in Ljubljana, Bucharest and Sarajevo and all ending in Istanbul in an attempt to connect countries and areas where political conflict has previously prevented cultural contact. 

Lost and Found also explores the concept of creativity in conflict as four female artists who share the experience of creating powerful and passionate performance art within the context of recent war or conflict work together.  It will culminate in a performance for the National Review of Live Art in Glasgow, February 2010.

Words Converge, a project using video screen technology to enable poetry and text-based art to be used in a variety of transformative contexts, in public squares, commercial spaces, art galleries, at concerts and at spoken word performances in the UK, Georgia, Israel and Romania will also be unveiled on the 2nd September in King’s Place. 

Rebecca Walton, Director Arts, British Council comments: “Creative Collaboration is an exciting set of interconnecting projects across countries in South East Europe including Bosnia & Herzegovina and Azerbaijan where British talent will connect with creativity in different environments to produce unexpected results.”

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Notes to Editors:

To download a high resolution image click here. This image must be credited: 'Words Converge - Poetry is like a balloon'  British Council Creative Collaboration. Image by James Darling.

Creative Collaboration operates in partnership with artists, cultural producers and creative entrepreneurs to create a series of collaborative cross-border arts projects in South East Europe and the UK.

The Creative Collaboration project is running in Albania, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece, Israel, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Turkey and the UK.

Creative Collaboration successes to date:

o         Over 400 artists, cultural leaders and creative entrepreneurs linked through the Open Space networking events

o         28 projects initiated covering all art forms including design, drama and dance, film, literature, music, new media and visual art

o         16 projects initiated in South East Europe in partnership with UK arts organisations

o         12 projects initiated in the UK with arts organisations from South East Europe

The British Council is the UK’s international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations. We work in over 100 countries worldwide to build engagement and trust for the UK through the exchange of knowledge and ideas between people. We work in the arts, education, science, sport and governance and last year we reached over 221 million people. We are a non-political organisation which operates at arm’s length from government. Our total turnover in 2007/8 was £565 million, of which our grant-in-aid from the British government was £197 million. For every pound of grant we receive, we generate an additional £1.92. For more information, please visit www.britishcouncil.org