India-Wales digital festival: connections through culture November 2020
These events have now happened. Scroll below to find the link to watch a recording.
Building on the success of the India Wales Programme in 2017/18 British Council Wales and India in partnership with Wales Arts International launched a new grants scheme named Connections Through Culture: India Wales which was announced by First Minister of Wales, Mark Drakeford, and British Council Chairman Stevie Spring at the Diwali celebration in Cardiff in 2019. Five Connections Through Culture Grants were awarded to partnerships made up of artists and arts organisations from India and Wales.
As the world struggles to cope with Covid-19, the 2019 Connections Through Culture grantees quickly changed their plans and shifted much of their planned project activity online. To honour their determination and spirit we decided to create an online event, the India-Wales digital festival: connections through culture.
During November 2020 there were a series of online events including panel discussions with visual artists, musicians, textile artists, writers, theatre makers, art leaders, and choreographers who discussed the body of collaborative work developed between Wales and India over recent years.
Festival schedule
Launch event in partnership with Welsh Government Digital Diwali #DiwaliCymru
Collaborations in literature
Thursday 12 November 2020
Introduction by Barbara Wickham OBE, Director British Council India. This event explored the many recent India-Wales collaborations in literature. It was chaired by Clare Reddington, British Council Trustee and CEO of the Watershed in Bristol. As part of the event, we launched Wales based Parthian Books’ Modern Bengali Poetry anthology which celebrates over one hundred years of poetry from the two Bengals - the Eastern Indian state and the country of Bangladesh - represented by over fifty different poets and a multitude of forms and styles, selected and translated by Arunava Sinha.
Find out more and watch the full event here
Arts leadership through Covid-19 in India and Wales
Tuesday 17 November 2020
As arts and creative industry sectors in India and Wales start to recover from the global pandemic, hear from arts leaders in India and Wales on how collective action and resilience are enabling and encouraging the sectors to imagine a new future for the arts. Chaired by Rashmi Dhanwani, Founder Director, The Art X Company.
Find out more and watch the full event here
Collaborations in visual arts
Thursday 19 November 2020
Journey through shared cultural narratives in the visual arts. Collaborations across borders and cultures in India and Wales. Chaired by Karen McKinnon, curator at Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, in South Wales.
Find out more and watch the full event here
Collaborations in music
Saturday 21 November 2020
Exploring Indo-Welsh music collaborations with festival producers and partners across borders, genders and digital landscapes. Chaired by Tom Sweet, Music Programme Manager at the British Council.
Find out more and watch the full event here
Collaborations in craft
Sunday 22 November 2020
An insight into craft collaborations across borders with personal accounts from artisans in India and Wales.
Find out more and watch the full event here
Collaborations in theatre and dance
Monday 23 November 2020
Exploring some of the many and varied collaborations in India and Wales across theatre and dance. Chaired by Rebecca Gould, Head of Arts in Wales at the British Council.
Find out more and watch the full event here