Welcome to Creative Scotland’s round-up of international opportunities and information, put together by Kate Deans, Creative Scotland’s International Officer.
First, we would like to take a moment to share our statement on Ukraine. You can read this in full on Twitter.
Remember that our Creative Scotland Opportunities site is the main resource for events, workshops, funding calls and more, and you can filter by ‘International’ there.
Image: Alberta Whittle, Lagareh – The Last Born, (film still – single channel video), 2022, Photographer Matthew Arthur Williams, © Alberta Whittle. Courtesy the artist, Scotland + Venice, and Forma
Open from 23 April, a major exhibition of new work by Alberta Whittle is presented by Scotland+Venice during La Biennale di Venezia, running until 27 November 2022. A partnership between Creative Scotland, British Council Scotland, National Galleries of Scotland, Architecture and Design Scotland, V&A Dundee and the Scottish Government, the exhibition ‘deep dive (pause) uncoiling memory’ features tapestry, film and sculpture, with the artist’s Barbadian heritage creating a background for conversation and exploring thought provoking themes from sustainability to decolonisation, police brutality, and collective healing. Read more on the Scotland+Venice website.
The culmination of a Creative Europe collaboration, The Bridge Festival takes place in venues across the city from 21 - 24 April and features performances from some of Europe’s leading innovative ensembles – bold ambitious groups looking to diversify how classical music is performed, shared and created.
Performances feature world premieres by Oscar-nominated Mica Levi and acclaimed Estonian composer Erkki-Sven Tüür; iconic repertoire from Mahler, Jonny Greenwood and Anna Meredith; hardanger fiddle, bağlama and electronics. This is iconic music for strings in iconic venues: from the Barrowland Ballroom where legends of the pop and rock world have played, to the tiny hidden gem of The Glad Café in Glasgow’s southside…the city will be filled with music in unexpected places.
The Bridge is a European collaboration which aims to inspire and further innovative creative thinking in the classical music sector and better connections between ensembles working at the highest professional level.
Marion Sinclair, CEO of Publishing Scotland, revealed the 9 publishers who have been chosen for the sixth International Fellowship which marks 54 publishers who have visited the country to meet Scottish publishers and experience the culture and landscape.
The group will spend a week in Scotland at the end of August meeting Scotland-based publishers, agents and writers in a varied programme of events across the country including the Edinburgh International Book Festival, dinner at Robert Louis Stevenson’s former home, a writer showcase in Glasgow and a trip to the Highlands to meet publishers and writers there.
The purpose of the visit is to help develop relationships between the international publishing community and the Scottish sector, facilitate rights selling and bring Scottish books to an international audience.
Come along to Fringe Central and Arts Infopoint UK’s joint event on Wednesday 20 April at 2pm.
Whether you’ve attended the Fringe before or not, if you are coming from outside the UK there are various things to think about and start planning in advance. Do you need a visa and when should you apply? What is a welcome letter and how do you get one? What do you need to do about tax? What new rules are in place since Brexit? Does your show require translation or subtitles? All these topics and more will be covered, so bring your questions and join Fringe Society staff, Arts Infopoint UK and guest speakers to learn more about attending the Fringe from afar. To sign up, register at Fringe Connect and then sign up to the event.
Next coffee morning is Tuesday 3 May. On the first Tuesday of every month at 9.30am, Arts Infopoint UK will be holding informal coffee mornings to bring together UK-based arts and creative professionals to share cross-border challenges, plans and ambitions, as we navigate the constantly shifting terrain of working internationally currently. At our last session we covered issues such as conveying a place across digital platforms; how to take care of your invited artists when they are going through the series of checks and barriers raised by the immigration system; and inconsistencies at different ports of entry and exit (Eurotunnel, ferries). Book your place on Eventbrite for any of the upcoming 2022 sessions.
The European Dancehouse Network has opened registrations for both EDN Encounter in Prague from 24 – 26 April, entitled “Support of the Ukrainian Dance Community” and the EDN Atelier in Sofia from 10 – 11 May “Breaking the Habits: Rebuilding Sustainability”. Both events are also open to online viewing or participation and you can read more on the European Dancehouse Network website.
Following their Spring Plenary meeting in Brussels in April, IETM, an international network for performing artists, holds their next Plenary in Serbia from 29 September to 2 October. The meeting will include an artistic programme, a day-time programme with talks and participatory discussions, a pre-meeting trip, and plenty of training, pitching and networking opportunities.
Scottish Government’s Arctic Connections Fund was established in 2021 to help Scottish organisations and communities collaborate with partners in the Arctic. It promotes exchange of expertise on shared issues and stimulate cooperation around common ambitions.
The fund supports initiatives including (but not limited to) seminars and conferences, hackathons and workshops, community learning opportunities and academic research. Projects that set the scene for longer-term initiatives are also eligible.
Scotland-based organisations can apply for a minimum of £1,000 and maximum of £10,000. The total available budget for the fund in the 2022-2023 financial year is £80,000. Deadline is midday on Wednesday 27 April 2022, and you can read more on the Scottish Government website.
Introduced by the European Cultural Foundation (ECF) in 2020, the Culture of Solidarity Fund was originally set up as a corona-response mechanism for pan-European cultural initiatives.
Today, with pooled resources from a group of European co-funders, the Culture of Solidarity Fund was relaunched as a pan-European effort at the beginning of the war in Ukraine to respond to local cultural emergency needs. After an initial phase of cultural emergency relief, the Fund is now open to individuals, collectives and organisations from all sectors and civil society at large that propose short-term or mid-term European cultural initiatives in the following three areas: counteracting disinformation, misinformation and propaganda filter bubbles; providing and nourishing safe cultural spaces for individuals feeling their homes and look for shelter; counteracting forces of fragmentation through artistic and cultural expressions. Read more on the European Cultural Foundation website.
The priorities of the new programme include: audiences, environment, social inclusion, internationalisation, and new technology, with sector specific calls in architecture, music, publishing and cultural heritage, as well as the useful calls which range across artforms, and creative, cultural and heritage sectors more widely. Read last July’s update for more information about the new programme, including the scaled-back ways that organisations based in Scotland and the UK can be involved in projects. Now live on the European Commission’s page, with a deadline of 3 May.
Read March’s update for a summary of how a Scotland or UK-based organisation can be involved in a Cooperation Project to a limited degree with their own funding contribution or as a subcontractor.
Sign up to Creative Europe Desk Ireland’s newsletter for regular summaries of Creative Europe developments in English.
A series of calls have opened in March under Horizon Europe, the EU’s Research and Innovation funding programme, covering important topics like climate adaptation and resilience, health, sustainable rail system, clean energy technologies and many others, including at least a couple of calls with a focus on culture and the arts. Read more on the European Commission website.
Open throughout the year, Scottish Books International’s Author International Travel Fund is available to Scottish writers who have been invited overseas to promote their work. Applicants can apply for a maximum of £1000 to support travel costs towards their trip. There are no deadlines, and applications are accepted each quarter as long as there is budget left, taking around four to five weeks to turnaround.
The British Council announced recipients of its International Collaboration Grants, supporting UK and overseas cultural partnerships to develop digital, face-to-face and hybrid artistic projects.
This inaugural £5 million programme of grants aims to support UK artists to develop creative artwork with international peers, encouraging innovative ways of working and collaborating. 94 projects from 41 countries have been successful, receiving grants between £5,000 and £75,000, and these projects include 17 successful applicants from Scotland.
In the latest round of the Publishing Scotland Translation Fund, eleven international publishers have received a total of £14,000 for works by Scottish authors to be translated into Croatian, Danish, Dutch, Hungarian, Japanese, Polish, Serbian, Spanish, and Swedish.
Visit the Scottish Books International website to see the full list of awards and learn more about the fund.
See our previous July update for a summary of the working groups and who is taking part in discussions.
Creative Carbon Scotland contributed the Scotland chapter for a new e-book published by the Boekman Foundation, called Towards sustainable arts: European best practices and policies. In seven chapters, experts from the Czech Republic, Finland, Flanders, Germany, the Netherlands, Scotland and Spain investigate how cultural organisations in their country are becoming more sustainable, how artists are engaging with the climate crisis, and which role culture has in the general transition towards a greener society. While each chapter contains many inspiring initiatives and ideas unique to each country, there are also striking similarities.
In light of developments since 2017, when the #MeToo movement rose to global prominence, the SHIFT – Shared Initiatives for Training partners (nine European cultural networks and platforms) made a common decision to focus on sexual harassment and power abuse in the European art world. Produced by IETM, On the Move – OTM, and FACE – Fresh Arts Coalition Europe, this publication is the culmination of the SHIFT project’s work on Gender and Power Relations.
Using a transnational, cross-border approach, the publication puts forward recommendations and solution-oriented strategies for the arts sector in general – and European cultural networks in particular – for combating sexual harassment and power abuse, and creating equitable and safe professional environments for art workers.
The Informal Council Meeting of Culture Ministers, organised by the French Presidency, met in Angers on 7 and 8 March. The ministers issued a declaration in support of Ukrainian artists, journalists and all professionals in the cultural sector, endorsed by EU Commissioner for Culture Mariya Gabriel.
The New European Bauhaus continues as a creative and interdisciplinary initiative seeking to connect the European Green Deal to our day to day lives, spaces and experiences. Preparations are underway for a first-ever Festival of the New European Bauhaus, taking place online and physically in Brussels and further afield.
In reaction to the Commission’s Communication on the New European Bauhaus, and in order to constructively contribute to the own-initiative report by the European Parliament, Culture Action Europe has consulted its wide cross sectoral membership made by over 170 networks, organisations, policy-makers, activists, individuals, to draft the policy recommendations.
Creative Scotland, in collaboration with people and organisations from across the culture sector in Scotland, and with the support of Scottish Government, launches a new initiative aimed at promoting the value that art and creativity contributes to all our lives.
With a dedicated website at its centre, Our Creative Voice is a new platform for demonstrating the tangible benefits that art and creativity contribute to our lives.
Several case studies, such as North Lands Creative, show the way in which international working can weave into and enrich local activity, and be sure to share your own stories too!
We received our final newsletter on developments following the EU-UK Trade Agreement from DCMS, including:
And finally, here are some core sources of information on international working:
Don’t forget that all events, workshops and funding opportunities can be found if you filter by ‘International’ on Creative Scotland’s Opportunities website.
