Deadline: 30-Jun-23
Creatives across Wales and France can apply now for grants through the Wales in France Cultural Fund.
British Council, Arts Council of Wales/Wales Arts International and Welsh Government will operate a Wales in France Cultural Fund.
Delivered by the British Council in partnership with the Arts Council of Wales, Wales Arts International, and the Welsh Government, the £100k fund is designed to spark new and refresh existing connections between Wales and France, supporting collaborations that build long-term relationships among artists, creative practitioners, and arts and cultural organisations.
Objectives
- Wales in France is a collaborative initiative convened by the Welsh Government to spotlight resource and mobilise internal and external stakeholder focus on France. It will provide a framework to harness the profile of the Rugby World Cup, amplify existing links and invest strategically in new connections that bring long-term benefit back to the people of Wales.
- Wales in France includes activity across across culture, education, sport, trade and invest, international relationships and more. In terms of culture, aims of the year are to;
- Celebrate and showcase Wales’s culture in all its diversity through our arts, heritage, language and culture
- Build lasting and meaningful relationships between Wales and France through the arts and creative industries
- Strengthen Wales’s sector through the innovation, networking, audience building and profile raising abilities of international work.
- Develop public facing performance and celebration projects, at a variety of scales and across all disciplines, which showcase Welsh art and culture in France during the Welsh Government’s Year of Wales in France 2023 year running from March 2023 – March 2024.
- Develop new partnerships and refresh existing partnerships with French individuals, organisations, and networks which have potential for long-term collaboration.
- Deliver a cultural programme that presents Wales as a globally responsible nation as part of Wales’s wellbeing culture model, putting a particular focus on sustainability, bilingualism, equalities, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility.
- Promote a Welsh presence at the Rugby World Cup 2023 and develop the growing links between sport and culture, focusing activity on host cities, Welsh fanzones, VIP events and the Wales team base camp. We would particularly welcome bids in Nantes, Lyon, Marseille and Versailles.
- Work with the Wales in France Culture Programme partners to develop stronger links with regions and cities in France. Of particular interest are Wales RWC game cities, greater Paris region- including Versailles and SQY as well as regions of strategic importance to Wales such as Brittany, where there is a Wales-Brittany MoU, but also with Rhone- Alps and Ile-de-France.
- Develop a sense of reciprocity through collaborative projects – supporting a broader campaign around Wales being a welcoming nation for French cultural partners.
Funding Information
They anticipate awarding two grants of £30k and three/four smaller grants of between £5-10k to project teams in Wales and France to collaborate on creative projects.
The £100k fund is designed to spark new and refresh existing connections between Wales and France, supporting collaborations that build long-term relationships among artists, creative practitioners, and arts and cultural organisations.
Eligibility Criteria
- The fund is open to individuals and organisations working in the field of arts and culture, creativity and wellbeing
- Applications must be a partnership between at least one organisation or individual based in Wales and at least one organisation or individual based in France.
- There must be one lead applicant, who is based in Wales.
- In general, funding should be split equitably between the partners
- Diversity: projects working primarily with Women, LBGTQ+ and/or disabled artists will be favourably scored under the diversity section of the application
- Artforms/disciplines: Literature, Visual Arts, Music, Film (including Gaming, Virtual and Augmented Reality), Theatre and Dance, Architecture, Fashion, Design.
Project Criteria
- Project outputs must include public-facing activities taking place in France in 2023 or early 2024.
- Working with a partner in France to deliver activity is preferred and will be preferred at the assessment stage will be given to collaborative projects.
- Timeframe for public events to be delivered is March 2023 – March 2024. Activity will be part of the Wales in France year aligned with the Rugby World Cup.
- Projects should have a well thought-through communications plan, which indicates the physical and digital reach of the project and includes how the project will be captured and shared with wider audiences online. A multilingual approach will be expected.
- Applications with match funding in place will be given greater priority but match funding is not essential
- Projects should aim to communicate a sense of Welsh identity, communicate our unique strengths multilingualism commitment to sustainability, inclusion, and diversity.
- Projects and applicants should embed principles of equality, diversity and inclusion through the core proposal, budget and design (e.g. Accessibility needs: captioning videos, translations, interpreters, gender of the beneficiaries or project team)
- Projects must demonstrate value-for-money and their approach to environmentally friendly choices (eg train travel where possible)
- Applications should indicate key project milestones and opportunities for physical and digital engagement public engagement
- Projects will submit project reports throughout the delivery year to the British Council, Welsh Government and Arts Council of Wales which capture pre-agreed data about their activity and allow for a wider evaluation to be undertake.
For more information, visit British Council.