CtC: India - UK is the British Council’s programme to support collaborative working between the UK and India in the arts. It’s focused on the arts industry itself, helping develop relationships between producers, festivals, arts organisations and companies with the principle aim to build strong sustainable relationships, and create a vibrant exchange of cultural product.

We’re delighted to announce the that following two years of Connections through Culture (CtC): India - UK, British Council is evolving the programme. We hope it will make the process lighter touch.

Creative Networking Grant: We will continue to offer between 20 -30 Creative Networking grants each year to enable producers organisations to make exploratory visits to the partner country to build relationships and develop plans for collaborative projects and work. This will be a small grant of £800 to contribute towards costs.

Applications will be processed 3 times a year. The closing dates in 2011-12 will be:

• Friday 27 May 2011
• Friday 30 September 2011
• Friday 27 January 2012

For further details about the application process, please check the website click here.

Planned networking programmes: Over the last two years, we have provided resources of on-ground support, management, contacts, financial investment and/or leadership to enable exciting, curated networking programmes to take place, across art forms including dance, theatre, crafts, museums, visual art and music. We will continue to work with partners in both the UK and India to develop study tours, organised visits to festivals and other planned opportunities for creative networking: and we are keen to talk to organisations in the arts sector in both countries who share our interests.

Development & Showcasing of Collaborative Work: Rather than supporting this development through a grant application process, we will continue to support a small number of development and showcasing projects through bespoke arrangements. Please contact and discuss your proposals for collaborative projects with the British Council Arts team in your country. You can email arts@britishcouncil.org for help and advice or contact preeti.gaonkar@in.britishcouncil.org in India. We can discuss your plans, and explore the possible fit of your proposal within the British Council’s programme aims. If the proposal is of interest and align closely with our aims, we will then seek further discussion and details about your plans and budgets and discuss how we can support.

We have a limited amount of support and resources we can offer and as with all the projects that British Council supports, we only support projects that fit with our aims as a cultural relations agency, are high quality, have relevance to the region we’re working in, have potential impact & outcomes, and embrace the spirit of mutual respect.