Eighteen creative and cultural practitioners from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Birmingham have been awarded grants to create new artworks, develop artistic relationships and hold online events as part of the Transforming Narratives Digital Collaborations programme.
The successful creative and cultural practitioners will receive grants worth a total of £75,000, after the initial funding pot of £50,000 was increased in response to the quality of the applications.
The new works, which span visual arts, music, dance, theatre and combined arts, will be created between now and December 2020. Each digital project seeks to link creative and cultural practitioners and communities in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Birmingham, England.
“We had an incredible response to the Digital Collaborative Grants Open Call, a new funding stream developed to respond to the on-going pandemic and its impact. As a result, we were able to increase the funds available both reflecting the quality of applications and the number of artists we wanted to support in all three countries,” says Sophina Jagot, project manager of the Transforming Narratives Project.
“The Transforming Narratives programme is all about making connections between artists and creative practitioners in Birmingham, Bangladesh and Pakistan, and it seemed to us now more than ever we needed to support the cultural sector in making those connections,” she added.
Transforming Narratives is a ground-breaking three-year project to establish Birmingham as a leading international centre for contemporary Pakistani and Bangladeshi arts, for the mutual benefit of Birmingham and cities in Pakistan and Bangladesh. It is managed by Culture Central, supported by Arts Council England and delivered in association with The British Council.
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