Arts Council England's Head of International joins Future Cities Forum on 'Cultural Bridge'

Berlin (above) in one of the cities involved in Cultural Bridge

Future Cities Forum is delighted that Arts Council England's Head of International, Nick McDowell, will be joining our 'Cultural Cities' discussion event this week, to talk about the further funding for 20 partnerships between UK and Germany based cultural organisations, as part of the ongoing Cultural Bridge programme.   

Cultural Bridge is a programme that aims to build links between the cultural sectors in the UK and Germany.  Each partnership is a collaboration between one or more organisations in each country, which will provide opportunities for artistic exchange and knowledge sharing, and develop new work that explores issues faced by communities across both countries. 

Funding for the programme comes from a partnership between Arts Council England, Arts Council Northern Ireland, Arts Council Wales/Wales Arts International, Creative Scotland, British Council, Fonds Soziokultur, and Goethe-Institut London.  New partnerships will receive up to £10,000, while continuing partnerships, which have taken part in previous years of the programme, will receive up to £30,000. 

With the newly announced partnerships, Cultural Bridge now supports 72 organisations through 35 partnerships. The 2024/25 partnerships are: 

• ARCHITEXTS OF CHANGE - Angeprangert! Spoken Word (Weißwasser, Germany) and Young Identity (Manchester) 

• Bridging Rural Communities - People, Process, Places - Dyffryn Dyfodol CIC (Llanrwst, Wales) and Syndikat Gefährliche Liebschaften (Quakenbrück, Germany) 

• Chemnitz & Manchester Residency - Quarantine (Manchester, England) and ASA-FF e.V./ Freundinnen- und Förderkreis Arbeits- und Studienaufenthalte in Afrika, Asien und Lateinamerika (Chemnitz, Germany) 

• Co-creating across borders: A tale of two cities - Brighton People’s Theatre CIO (Brighton, England) and English Theatre Leipzig (Leipzig, Germany) 

• Collectively Crossing: Affiliation Bridges - Kunstverein Leipzig (Leipzig, Germany) and Bistro 21 and Bidston Observatory Artistic Research Centre (BOARC) (Prenton, England) 

• Colour Stories. Sharing journeys of a dyer’s garden - artpark Hoher Berg UG gemeinnützig (Schermbeck, Germany) and Brink! (Belfast, Northern Ireland) 

• Common Values, Shared Dreams - The Mighty Creatives (Leicester, England) and Werkhaus e.V. (Krefeld, Germany) 

• Empowering mixedabled/inclusive dance across international communities - Anjali Dance Company (Derby, England) and com.dance (Horben, Germany) 

• Feminism and Migrant activism - Stellar Quines Ltd (Fife, Scotland) and MPower (Berlin, Germany) 

• New sustainable models for artist-led spaces - Assembly House CIC (Leeds, England) and E-WERK Luckenwalde (Luckenwalde, Germany) 

• The Invisible City - Tortoise in a Nutshell (Edinburgh, Scotland) and Theater Gruene Sosse (Frankfurt, Germany) 

• Uncomfortable Dialogues - Unveiling Marginalized Black Experiences through Dance, Film, and Storytelling - MINCE e.V. (Berlin, Germany) and Miss Lulu Creates LTD (London, England) 

• Unlocked - Geese Theatre Company (Birmingham, England) and aufBruch (Berlin, Germany) 

• Wetland: sharing practices of care and hospitality to engage communities and redfine former industrial spaces - Cement Fields (Kent, England) and Floating e.V. (Berlin, Germany) 

• An Audio Hunt in Easterhouse - Produced Moon (Glasgow, Scotland) and Storydive (Hamburg, Germany) (Previous Tier 1 partnership) 

• ENTER: Robots exchange - Hijinx Theatre (Cardiff, Wales) and tanzbar-bremen e.V. (Bremen, Germany) 

• Let the Grassroots Grow - SET Centre CIO (London, England) and riesa efau (Dresden, Germany) (Previous Tier 1 partnership) 

• My Body is my Castle - An intergenerational and performative research - 4.D (Dortmund, Germany) and ACCA (Leeds, England) (Previous Tier 1 partnership) 

• Rap School of Life - Improving Language and Mental Health - Kanzi GmbH (Berlin, Germany), Forward Ever Education CIC and Hip Hop HEALS (Birmingham, England) 

• The Shake - The MAC (Belfast, Northern Ireland) and coculture e.V. (Berlin, Germany) (Previous Tier 1 partnership)