Cultural Bridge announces 20 awarded partnerships for its 2025-2026 programme
Cultural Bridge is a collaborative funding network between Arts Council England, the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, British Council, Creative Scotland, Fonds Soziokultur, Goethe-Institut London and Wales Arts International / Arts Council of Wales, that supports arts and cultural organisations across the UK and Germany to develop partnerships exploring social arts practice.
The 20 partnerships for its 2025 - 2026 programme have been awarded a total of £360,000 to develop artistic practices and projects exploring themes and issues faced by communities across both countries.
Funding is awarded across two tiers with up to £10k for new partnerships and up to £30k for existing partnerships. This year’s programme supports twelve new and eight established connections, including six partnerships that will receive continued funding from Cultural Bridge.
The funding network launched in 2021 and has now supported 49 partnerships through 62 awards. It enables hundreds of artists and practitioners to work with thousands of community members across a range of art forms and themes.
This year’s funding will support work exploring youth leadership, digital storytelling and emerging technologies, disability-led dance and movement, the intersection of LGBTQI+, neurodivergence and disability, West-African craft and puppetry, circus arts, diaspora communities, music, age inclusion, environmental and climate issues, industrial heritage and more.
The 2025 – 2026 partnerships
Tier one (new partnerships receiving funding up to £10k):
- Act Your Age!: Youth Leadership in Art and Activism: Common Wealth Theatre (Bradford, England & Cardiff, Wales) and FUNDUS THEATER / Theatre of Research (Hamburg)
- Bridging Borders: A Collaborative Arts Exchange: Sheba Arts (Salford, England) and Iranisches Kulturfest/Termeh Festival (Munich, Bayern)
- Bridging Cultures: Digital Storytelling and Creative Connections for Community Empowerment: Intercultural Roots for Public Health (Coventry, England) and MakingCulture® e.V. (Coburg, Bayern)
- Dance Ability Bridge: Dylan Quinn Dance Theatre (Enniskillen, Northern Ireland) and unperform e.V. (Bremen)
- Everybody needs a puppet: Swallow's Wings Puppetry (London, England) and Dialogus – Kulturelle Vielfalt leben e. V. (Mittweida/Chemnitz, East Germany)
- Missing link: Think Circus (Edinburgh, Scotland) and wheels e.V./Junges Theater (Munster & Berlin)
- Sharing Creative Practice: Media Education CIC (Edinburgh, Scotland) and Q3.Quartier für Medien.Bildung (Traunstein, Bayern)
- Social Circus - Building Bridges: Circusful (Belfast, Northern Ireland) and Coraggio (Berlin)
- Songs of Neighbours and Strangers: Das Clarks (Newport, Wales) and Cargo-Theater (Freiburg, Baden-Württemberg)
- Stubborn Optimism: Social Arts Co-Creation and Positive Change in Community Contexts: Bright Shadow CIO (Herne Bay, England) and Raum der Künste e.V. (Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg)
- The Quiet Room: Disability Arts in Shropshire (Shrewsbury, England) and Berlinklusion GbR (Berlin)
- Water Chronicles: exploring stories of accessibility in urban water spaces: Surge Coop (Newham, London) and Insola (Berlin)
Tier two (existing partnerships receiving funding up to £30k):
- Colour Stories. Evolving journeys: the art of flax & linen: Brink! (Belfast, Northern Ireland) and artpark Hoher (Schermbeck, nr Essen)
- Exploring Flows: Dyffryn Dyfodol (Wales) and Syndikat Gefährliche Liebschaften (Quakenbrück)
- North East Moves Inc: TIN Arts ltd (Durham, England) and Perform[d]ance e.V. (Stralsund)
- Sick in the City: Investigating Queerness and Disability in Public Urban Space: University of Atypical (Belfast, Northern Ireland) and COVEN BERLIN (Berlin)
- Unlocked: Geese Theatre Company (Birmingham, England) and aufBruch (Berlin)
- Utopia writing and film collaboration: Stellar Quines Ltd (Fife, Scotland) and MPower (Berlin)
- We Dance, We Connect: Anjali Dance Company (Derby, England) and com.dance (Horben)
- Without Walls: The Mighty Creatives (Leicester, England) and Werkhaus e.V. (Krefeld)
Applications for the 2025-2026 Cultural Bridge programme are now closed
Cultural Bridge supports arts and cultural organisations across the UK and Germany to develop partnerships that explore social arts practice.
By enabling new and existing connections, Cultural Bridge supports a growing network of organisations committed to sharing expertise and skills, exchanging ideas and collaborating on artistic practices and projects that explore themes and issues faced by communities across both countries.
Through co-investment from Arts Council England, the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, British Council, Creative Scotland, Fonds Soziokultur, Goethe-Institut London and Wales Arts International / Arts Council of Wales, Cultural Bridge has so far supported 35 partnerships through 42 awards, across three rounds of funding since its pilot year in 2021.
The 2025-2026 Cultural Bridge programme application portal is now closed, the deadline for applications was Tuesday, 26th November 2024.
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