Cultural Bridge Programme in the UK and Germany

Deadline: 26-Nov-2024

The Cultural Bridge aims to support arts and cultural organisations across the UK and Germany to develop partnerships that explore social arts practice.

Theyt fund organisations who embody cultural democracy through:

• placing communities at the heart of their creative work
• exploring new ways of connecting arts and society, particularly through fostering co-creation between communities, artists, and other partners
• supporting people from across their communities to develop their creativity and discover their individual voices
• empowering their communities to work together to shape local place, shared identity, and collective agency

Themes

• Cultural Bridge aims to develop innovative participatory approaches across a range of artforms and in response to the programme place themes:
  • Re-invigorating post-industrial places/communities
  • Increasing cultural engagement in places with fewer opportunities
  • Exploring places and communities transformed by grass-roots activism
  • Redefining the use of public space

Funding Information

• There is a total of £360,000 available in the 2025 – 2026 funding round. Funding is awarded across two tiers:
  • Tier 1: New Partnerships, up to £10,000 per partnership
    • Supporting the development of brand-new partnerships between arts and cultural organisations in the UK and Germany.
  • Tier 2: Established Partnerships, up to £30,000 per partnership
    • Supporting further development of partnerships, where organisations already have

Eligibility Criteria

• To be eligible, applicants must:
  • Be an organisation based in the UK or Germany
  • Be able to demonstrate expertise in social arts practice working with communities
• Cultural Bridge is open to all artforms and will prioritise support for:
  • Smaller arts & cultural organisations who don’t already receive significant or sustained funding
  • Organisations who empower local communities through their creative work
  • Organisations whose work aligns with the programme aims and place themes
  • Organisations who foster equity, diversity and inclusion through their leadership and practice
• All partnerships must be bi-lateral, including at least one German partner and one UK partner, from any one of the four nations: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
• Organisations can only be involved in one partnership application. Multiple applications from an organisation will likely result in related submissions being made ineligible.

Ineligibility Criteria

• They cannot accept applications from:
  • Individual artists or practitioners
  • Organisations based outside of the UK and Germany
  • Organisations who cannot demonstrate that they have a track record of social arts practice working directly with local communities
  • National or international networks or member organisations
  • Universities or other educational establishments

For more information, visit Cultural Bridge.