British Council launches £50,000 seed fund to promote cultural innovation in India

Emphasising on deepening and strengthening cultural ties between India and UK, British Council India is launching a £50,000 (Rs 50 lakh approximately) cultural innovation fund to promote cultural exchange between the two countries. Under this, five projects will be selected for seed funding of £10,000 each by the end of July 2016. This is a first of its kind fund being introduced only for India by the British Council. 

“We want to have ideas from India and Britain and bring those ideas together to make brilliant new things. In return for this seed funding, we would like to see a prototype or proof of concept of your project that we can test with potential audiences in September and October 2016. Following user testing in autumn, we will make a number of commissions based on potential audiences and costs of projects. Full commissions must launch during 2017,” said British Council India director Alan Gemmell.

In order to be eligible to apply, participants must be based in the UK or India and have a track record of developing new digital projects or experiences that have successfully reached new audiences (though not necessarily at this scale before).

British Council is also launching a £30-million Cultural Protection Fund to help and to create opportunities for economic and social development through building capacity to foster, safeguard and promote cultural heritage in conflict-affected regions like the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, specifically Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Iraq, Palestinian Territories, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey and Yemen.

Gemmell added: “With the British Council, we believe that culture has a powerful role to play in helping people understand one another. India's cultural relationship with Britain is incredibly important. We want to develop stronger cultural relations between Britain and India. We want to celebrate, reconnect, revive and inspire the next generation of people culturally. We want to develop stronger cultural relations between Britain and India. We want to celebrate, reconnect, revive and inspire the next generation of people culturally.”

The 'UK-India Year of Culture' was announced during the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to London in November 2015. The campaign aims to highlight the cultural history of the two countries and celebrate the best 'cultural exports' together.

The year 2017 marks the culmination of four years of Re-Imagine — a programme designed to build new creative connections in new ways between the people and institutions of Britain and India.

Globally, British Council is also partnering on a digital co-commission for 2017 with Manchester International Festival, and projects submitted to this open call may be selected for this co-commission. If selected, their projects would be launched during the festival.

The Council has also launched 'Mix the Play' — a special edition of the popular 'Mix the City' platform that promotes Shakespeare. The digital platform will offer audiences the chance to direct one of Shakespeare's most loved play — A Midsummer Night's Dream. The objective of Mix the Play is to engage audiences with Shakespeare and educate them about theatre direction in a fun way.