Visual Arts Programmes:

We work with partner organisations in the UK and internationally to deliver our programmes. 

For all opportunities, please visit the arts opportunities website.

 

Art Exchange: Moving Image 

A professional development and exhibition programme for early to mid-career curators from Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Together, they will learn from and interpret the British Council Collection's moving image works.  Each curator will then present an exhibition in their own country of their selected works from the British Council Collection, in dialogue with local contemporary artworks. ​  

 

Biennials Connect: Delegations  

Biennials Connect brings together international early and mid-career curators to support curatorial practice, professional development, and international collaboration.  The programme focuses on in-person delegations at one or two international biennials each year, supported by a year-round online programme.  

In 2022 we hosted a delegation to Venice Biennale for early and mid career curators from the UK and Sub-Saharan Africa. 

In 2023, we will host a delegation at  Liverpool Biennial. 

 

Art Exchange: Seasons  

Centred around the Seasons and Spotlights programme, we will work with partners in the UK and internationally to co-curate thematic exhibitions using the British Council Collection. In 2024, macLYON in Lyon and Ikon Gallery in Birmingham will collaborate for the France Spotlight to create a bilateral exhibition on the theme of ‘friendship’.  The exhibition will draw works from the British Council Collection alongside those of French artists from the macLYON collection, showing in Lyon from March 2024 before travelling to Birmingham from September 2024.  Projects for UK/Poland in 2025 are in development. 

Read more about our Seasons programme.

 

Grant Programmes:

All our grant programmes support collaboration between organisations, curators and artists in the UK and internationally. 

 

Biennials Connect Grants: 

The next round of funding for Biennials Connect Grants will launch in Autumn 2023. Organisations in the UK and internationally can apply for grants of up to £10,000 to support visual artists’ participation in international biennials. Eligibility and criteria will be published each year. 

Click here to see the full list of current grant holders.

 

International Collaboration Grants

The next round of funding for International Collaboration Grants will launch in September 2023. Organisations in the UK and internationally can apply for grants of up to £75,000 to support artists to make and develop projects with their international peers, and to encourage new international partnerships and innovative ways of working. The size of grants will be determined each year.   

Applications must demonstrate genuine international collaboration and an explicit benefit to individual artists and international partners, and projects should address significant contemporary themes, from climate change to global challenges. 

Find out more about International Collaboration Grants.