The British Council is proud to announce the recipients of the 2025 Connections Through Culture (CTC) Grant Programme, which supports a new wave of artistic collaborations between the United Kingdom and international partners.
This year, 127 projects have been awarded grants globally, with 4 from Australia. Each brings artists and organisations from the UK and different parts of the world to exchange ideas, co-create, and explore bold new approaches to some of today’s most pressing global challenges.
"Each of the 2025 projects tells a story of artists finding common ground, experimenting, and creating something new together. These collaborations remind us that the arts thrive on mutual exchange and that when people connect across cultures, they create work that resonates far beyond their own communities," said Helen Salmon, Director of British Council Australia.
2025/26 Australia/UK Grantees
Bat Night Market
Australia: World Science Festival Brisbane / UK: Robert Charles Johnson
Bat Night Market is a multi-sensory installation set in a speculative future where bats are extinct. Styled as a futuristic Asian night market, it invites audiences to reflect on bats' ecological importance and the impact of their loss. Its Brisbane presentation marks a new phase with fresh collaborators, running for ten days at Queensland Museum Kurilpa during World Science Festival Brisbane 2026 and featuring performances alongside the exhibition.
Collaborative Curatorship: Indigenous Voices at Rise 2026
Australia: Jacob Boehme / UK: Dance North Scotland
Choreographer and curator Jacob Boehme will lead a residency hosted by Dance North Scotland as part of their next Rise festival in 2026 that will focus on Indigenous and First Nations artists. He will pilot a new framework - a Land Lab- that will lay the foundation for future First Nations artist exchanges with the organisation. During the residency, Jacob will adapt his acclaimed performance Guuranda for the landscapes of Findhorn through a process of deep cross-cultural dialogue. This will include online cultural immersion sessions and a three-week creative development period. Bringing together Elders, First Nations artists, Scottish dancers, local experts and community participants, the project will be a shared exploration of landscapes, histories, languages, and memory, that will culminate in performances during the festival.
From the Margins: Creative Survival within Marginalised Economies
Australia: TextaQueen / UK: Raju Rage
From the Margins brings together creatives Raju Rage and TextaQueen to explore the theme of 'Marginalised Economies', focusing on issues of diversity and accessibility for precarious and underrepresented artists. The project will unfold through a hybrid in-person and online engagement model, cultivating international dialogue, creative exchange and collaborative resource making for creative survival.
Regenesis
Australia: Dr. Sam McGilp / UK: Luisa Charles
Regenesis is a new media art and regenerative design project that seeks to build new knowledge in ecologically sustainable practice for emerging technologies through neurodivergent perspectives. This grant supports the initial development of this creative work, culminating in an online artist lab with neurodivergent new media artists in Australia and the UK.