International Collaboration Grants

Rhythms of Resistance: Embodiment and Liberation

Rhythms of Resistance undertakes an artistic survey of the many ways in which the performance aesthetics of resistance, offered by Capoeira and Vogue, functions as rhythmic strategies of liberation for Black, LGBTQIAPN+ and other historically oppressed bodies. They believe that the opposite of dispossessed is embodied, positioning the body as key to unlocking the transformative potential of these practices of transgressive self-authorship. Offline and online provocations, augmented by digital innovation, will culminate in the production of an art film and an original sonograph, accompanied by an educational series and codex of text anthologising the process.

Calipso de El Callao

The link between the UK and Venezuela is fascinating and one that is locked up in song. The bearers of much information about this link are the folk musicians, ethnomusicologists and multi-generational communities for which these rich traditions are so strong. This project celebrates Venezuela’s rich cultural heritage, focusing on the city of El Callao, a city of colliding genres and traditions, while exploring its deep-rooted connections to the UK drawing parallels between the effects of the environment on the music we make and the culture we express. The team will explore the relationship between Carnival and Calypso in the UK and that which is found in Venezuela. This will be explored through film and music engaging Falmouth University staff and students in researching and capturing this creative journey. The team will be led by Sam Jones from Falmouth University – working within the Centre for Heritage, Culture & Society – Luzmira Zerpa, a traditional folk musician, and Guillermo Lares from Archivo Lares.  They will embark on a journey to Venezuela to record the sounds of El Callao, collaborating with Fundalares to identify local artists who will then travel to the UK for a tour around London, Bristol, Stroud and Cornwall, culminating in a residency at Falmouth University. This residency will create an album that will blend Calypso with Celtic and traditional Cornish music.

Balimaya Project Meets Discos Pacifico All Stars

Facilitated by UK Jazz stalwarts Jazz re:freshed and the prolific Colombia based Llorona Records, Balimaya Project Meets the Discos Pacifico Allstars is a musical exchange blending West African, Afro-Colombian and African-descendant cultures, represented through jazz. Balimaya Project, rooted in Mandé Jazz, incorporates the often overlooked idioms of Mandé folklore alongside other West African traditions. The Discos Pacifico All Stars, featuring members from Colombian Pacific coast folkloric groups like Bejuco and Agrupación Changó, focus on Afro-Colombian traditions, particularly marimba music. This collaboration forms a supergroup of over 15 musicians. They will travel between nations to explore the cultural connections between instruments like the djembe, balafon, marimba and cununo in the context of their respective traditions and modern contexts. The project examines how land and material shape the sound and innovations of African diasporic music. It offers Colombian musicians broader exposure while providing London artists with an archival journey. Culminating in live performances in both Bogota and London, together they will compose, workshop and record new music, highlighting the journey of West African folkloric music to South America and Europe.

Fat Dance | Dança Gorda

Though around 64% of the UK population could be considered ‘fat’, the suggestion is that there are only a small handful of fat professional dancers. The figures are similar in Brazil where 57% of people are considered fat. The team behind Fat Dance says: ‘dance has long ignored the marginalisation of this significant proportion of our communities; this is an opportunity to focus not only on inclusion but on fat embodiment’s relevance for the fields of dance and choreography.’ Their project will launch an exchange between two prominent choreographers and performers, Gillie Kleiman (UK) and Jussara Belchior Santos (Brazil), who will work together in an unusual two-week residency structure. Each will spend one week in the Midlands on each of their works and one week in São Paulo on each of their works, acting as a collaborator in the other’s choreographic research with documentary filmmaker Magdalena Hutter (DE). In each location, performers will be invited to take part and participate in the residencies led by each artist, enhancing the depth of the exchange and a number of public-facing activities will emerge from the residencies.

Real Contentment

Real Contentment is a 9-month artist exchange programme that will be the start of a lasting partnership between Manchester and Nanjing, both UNESCO Cities of Literature and UNESCO Cities of Lifelong Learning. Collaborations between six artists – poets, illustrators and playwrights – will create new multilingual work to be published and exhibited in both cities in 2025, including at the Festival of Libraries in Manchester in June 2025. All creative collaborations, plus a parallel schools engagement programme, respond to the ecological themes of the poetry of award-winning poet and essayist Han Dong.

CAREscape

The CAREscape project (Climate-Adaptive Reimaginings for Enhancing Healthcare Spaces of the Future – Creating Speculative Architecture to Building Connections for Healthy and Climate Resilient Communities) is an exciting collaboration between the University of Plymouth in the UK and the University of the Philippines, as well as people living in communities which are especially vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. It will see health researchers, architects and artists working directly with those living in Manila, a city facing increasing climate risks, about any ways to rethink and redesign healthcare spaces that may become unusable during extreme weather events or other natural disasters. 

The project team will talk to local people and learn about their experiences of climate change and health and explore how the communities envision spaces for care. This process will use creative tools like mapping and storytelling to gather insights from residents, especially tapping into local knowledge and cultural traditions to ensure that any healthcare designs fit the community’s unique needs. From there, and based on what they’ve learned from the community, architects and artists will come together to create potential ideas for new healthcare infrastructures. 

These designs will be forward-thinking and imaginative, creating spaces that resonate with people’s cultural values and daily lives. The designs won’t just be blueprints – they will incorporate visuals, sounds and even cultural rituals that reinforce the connections between communities and care spaces. The project’s results will be showcased in exhibitions in Manila and London, featuring a mix of digital maps, design prototypes, and artistic creations that highlight how communities can adapt healthcare spaces to be both climate-resilient and culturally meaningful. By sharing these innovations across borders, the project hopes to spark discussions about the future of healthcare in a changing climate and inspire similar efforts in other vulnerable areas around the world.

Fungi and Being in the Dark

This is an environmentally-themed, collaborative exchange and creation project between artists inspired by mycelium in caves in two UNESCO Global Geoparks (in the UK and Thailand). It will explore the fascinating world of fungi and the experience of darkness through a collaborative exchange between artists inspired by mycelium found in caves within two UNESCO Global Geoparks, one in the UK and the other in Thailand. This initiative will reveal the rhizomatic ecological and cultural connections that bind us globally. The project will culminate in high-quality contemporary installations and immersive performances for public audiences in cultural venues and cave spaces. Additionally, a digital concept album will engage a wide online audience and serve as a legacy documenting the project’s journey.

AI in Film

This project aims to explore AI technology through the co-production of two short films between Lebanon and the UK. It pairs emerging directors and producers from Lebanon with experienced scriptwriters, editors and composers from the UK and by leveraging AI as a tool for artistic expression, rather than threatening it – seeking to nurture cross-cultural collaboration between Lebanon and the UK. These connections should serve as a stepping stone for more co-productions taking place between the UK and Lebanon, fostering future collaborations.

Dom Tak 2025: Arab and Arabic-Speaking Artists with Disabilities

Komet Kashakeel (UK) is teaming up with Sowt (Jordan) on an immersive five-episode podcast series exploring the experiences of artists with disabilities, bringing together producers, translators, sound artists and voice actors in the UK and Jordan / SWANA (South West Asia and North Africa) in a new and innovative joint production (with Arabic and English translations). The podcast series takes listeners on an immersive audio journey exploring the stories, music and experiences of Arab and Arabic-speaking artists with disabilities in SWANA and UK. Each episode weaves original interviews with field recordings and clips of performances, music compositions and sound art to give listeners rich insights into the unique sounds of each artist and group’s creative practice, providing a range of perspectives on how to survive and thrive as an artist with disabilities.

Our Voice Together Now

Our Voice Together Now is a ground-breaking new project that nurtures, supports and celebrates cultural relations between the richly diverse cultures of the Middle East and Belfast. Building on Belfast International Arts Festival’s recent engagement with D-CAF (Cairo’s Downtown Contemporary Arts Festival) and RCDF (Ramallah Contemporary Dance Festival) and artists across the Middle East, the creative exchange will include: artist exchanges and choreographic residencies based in Belfast, Cairo and Ramallah; co-commissioning and developing new dance works that encourage a wide range of creative approaches in an artist-centred, audience-focused process to be seen by audiences in all three cities; and, public engagement programmes connecting the three cities.

A River Between Mountains

Whispers of Grass: Resilient Creativity is an artist residency and research project conceived by A.MAL Projects, Takafes and the Arab British Centre for emerging Moroccan and British artists to explore: the natural and cultural landscape of the Fez-Meknes region; the impact of colonialism, trade, tourism and climate change on local crafts; the techniques, imagery and materials associated with the city and its surrounding natural resources. The artistic research will be enhanced by exchanges with craftspeople, researchers, scientists and farmers. The project will be exhibited in Fez and London, accompanied by a public programme in both cities.

Threads of Tales: The Nakshi Kantha Book Project – Storytelling for Children Through Traditional Nakshi Kantha Embroidery

Threads of Tales weaves together storytelling, book making and traditional Bangladeshi nakshi kantha embroidery to create children’s contemporary literature. Bok Bok Books, a multi-cultural publisher based in the UK; HerStroy Publications, a feminist book maker in Bangladesh and embroidery artist Ibraheem Paling, will research and revive embroidered folklore and myths. The project will result in 200 interactive cloth books, the design of a Bok Bok Books publication based on the research for the project and a series of nakshi katha storytelling workshops in the UK and Bangladesh.

Mehfil-Cèilidh: An Artistic Exchange Between Communities in Rawalpindi and Islamabad, Pakistan & Skye and Lochalsh, Scotland

The Mehfil-Ceilidh project will connect artists from Rawalpindi and Islamabad, Pakistan, with those from Skye and Lochalsh, Scotland, to explore shared challenges in maintaining their respective cultural practices. Despite being four thousand miles apart, both regions face similar difficulties such as the loss of cultural memory and many young artists leaving to seek better prospects. The project includes two international exchanges, cultural excursions and six online sessions for knowledge exchange. The project will host public events in their homes, welcoming communities to share in artistic traditions, food, and music. These gatherings will celebrate the cultural heritage of both regions, fostering community involvement and generational exchange.

Imagining the Forest – Cross-Cultural Conversations

A new partnership between Richmond (London), Karachi (Pakistan) and São Paulo (Brazil), will commission artists and work with indigenous communities to address their ecological crises. This participatory project will engage artists and communities to spark discussions on themes such as river ecology, treescapes and indigenous knowledge. Artists Rafael Vilela (São Paulo), Nadeem Al Karimi (Karachi), and Eelyn Lee (London) will create new works, supported by ‘Long Table’ events for public debate, with resulting artworks showcased at Richmond's Art and Ideas Festival, São Paulo Biennale and Karachi Biennale.

Woven Worlds

Salford Slow Fashion and IGC Fashion are collaborating on a unique fashion collection inspired by workshops with two community groups. This project builds on their ongoing partnership and shared commitment to ethical fashion and community engagement. Salford Slow Fashion will work with a group of care-experienced young people, while IGC Fashion will collaborate with victims of war from the Kitgum Community Group. These groups will explore self-expression through words, patterns and stitching, which will then be transformed into textiles for the collection. ‘Our aim is not only to amplify the voices and experiences of these communities but also to highlight the textile connection between the UK and Uganda.’ The knowledge and techniques exchanged through this project aim to inspire more mindful interactions with fashion.

RE-ROLL Station Lab 2.0

RE-ROLL Station Lab 2.0 is a capacity building, co-creation and showcase accelerator program between Sub-Saharan and UK designers in fashion, visual art and architecture. The RE-ROLL Station Lab 2.0 will facilitate virtual and in-person workshops with the aim to: accelerate sustainable designers by building their capacity in sustainable design principles and woven textile techniques; create a community platform where they will co-create new art by recycling and upcycling waste materials to wearable outfits; display art and give the creatives the opportunity to visit sustainable studios in SSA and the UK. The RE-ROLL Station Lab will facilitate a pop-up market that will open up access to market for the creatives in Nigeria and the UK and focus on female founders, entrepreneurs and artisans providing them with the tools and opportunities to succeed in the creative sector globally. The programme will cover a comprehensive range of topics, provide participants with tools, resources and connect them with a high-profile industry mentor and experts who will provide one-to-one support to creatives.

Future Femmes – XR Labs

This project builds upon past research and development collaborations between 4Pi Productions (Cardiff) and Matamba Film Labs (Harare). It offers a unique artistic exchange, bringing together Welsh and Zimbabwean artists from various disciplines to create an innovative 360° dance piece in partnership with Afrikera Dance Trust. The work will explore critical environmental issues facing Zimbabwe and provide valuable training opportunities for female creatives interested in immersive technologies. Once completed, the XR piece will join the Dance Dome platform, a portable 360º cinema that merges movement, digital technology, and film. Additionally, the project will be shared online, expanding its reach to global audiences and inviting new engagement.

Lost and Forgotten: Reviving Traditions Through Multimedia Storytelling

This project unites artists and creatives from the UK and Kenya to create a sound and light multimedia experience inspired by the rich storytelling traditions of Kenya's coastal communities. Through an innovative fusion of music, storytelling, visual art and light they will collect lost and forgotten traditional tales from Elders at the Kenyan coast, led by Kenyan based storytellers Al Kags and Mara Menzies. Among these will be the stories of the little known Pango ya Saidi cave system. This site, located along the Kenyan coast, is home to Africa's oldest known human burial, dating back an astounding 78,000 years. The story of this ancient ritual offers a rare glimpse into the spiritual and cultural practices of our earliest ancestors, as well as insight into the very human story of love and death of a young child.

Mapenzi Makubwa (Big Love)

The Mapenzi Makubwa project is an exchange of artists, ideas and skills between two established music and arts festivals. Nyege Nyege in Uganda serves as both a showcase of cutting edge arts and music from East Africa and the diaspora, as well as a ground for experimentation and community building. Big Love has built a reputation as one of the UK’s most creative small festivals, known as much for its immersive and inspiring visual experiences as it is for its diverse musical programming. Nyege Nyege has provided a space for underrepresented artists and music scenes from across Africa and initiated training programmes in music journalism, stage management and event production. Now the festival wants to team up with Big Love to push the boundaries of stage design and decoration, with the goal of training and inspiring local creatives and craftspeople – painters, welders, carpenters and gardeners – to build a more visually stunning event and leaving a lasting practical legacy. In return, Big Love will host some of the exciting creatives helping to shape the contemporary Ugandan music scene. The festival will also incorporate elements of East African design and culture into its own visual language and its outreach activities. The project journey will be documented by artists utilising a variety of digital media to maximise the reach of the collaboration.

Three Fields

Three Fields is a new international co-commission between Abandon Normal Devices (UK), Arts Catalyst (UK), Fast Familiar (UK), Unbox Festival (IN) and Fak’ugesi Festival (ZA). It assembles an international cohort of partners and creatives to develop an innovative web-based immersive and XR artwork, while pioneering sustainable digital production tools, documenting and setting a new precedent for environmentally conscious creative digital practices.

Creative Exchange and Talent Development for Queer Narratives

Creative Exchange and Talent Development for Queer Narratives has been created for LGBTQIA+ creatives in Turkey and the United Kingdom. The project aims to facilitate a dynamic exchange between publishers (Umami Kitap and fourteen poems) and creatives from the United Kingdom and Turkey, focusing on the vibrant realm of queer poetry. The aim is to unearth, nurture and elevate queer voices, fostering recognition and resonance with wider audiences.

Balmy UKraine

Balmy UKraine is a pilot collaborative art, activism and mental health film project, bringing together British and Ukrainian artists with young disabled people impacted by war. The project builds on UK-based artist the vacuum cleaner's seminal Chisenhale commission For They Let in the Light and Manchester International Festival project Balmy Army. The project aims to create a new video artwork in response to a question: ‘how do young people want to talk about what they are going through?’ The piece will be presented at Ukrainian film festivals and high-profile UK galleries as part of the wider Balmy Army programme. 'War (not the band) is no good for our mental health,' say the vacuum cleaner, 'so how do young people process and share that? Balmy UKraine is a madpride art, activism and mutual care project for young people across the world and Manchester.’

Breaking Borders

Breaking Borders is a residential lab designed to encourage creative collaboration between the UK and the Balkans and drive positive social change whilst pushing the boundaries of the documentary form. Up to eight emerging filmmakers from Kosovo and Scotland will take part in this intensive and immersive residency in Prizren, which will offer a combination of group workshops, industry-led sessions and mentorship. Participants will also get a chance to collaborate in teams to produce four short documentaries aimed for international distribution which will premiere at DokuFest 2025.

Time Based: Sonic Interventions

Time Based: Sonic Interventions is a festival of experimental music and performance art from the UK and Ukraine that will premiere in Glasgow in 2025.  It is curated by Arts & Parts (UK) and Time Based (UA). With a focus on the imperative to speak out and have your voice heard, Time Based: Sonic Interventions offers a unique platform for collaboration via live performance, sonic happenings and audio-visual installations – weaving together the rich cultural heritage of both nations.  A symposium will encourage audiences to pause, reflect and connect, to demonstrate solidarity in the face of aggression and to explore what’s at the cutting edge of contemporary sound, performance and installation art.