Wales in France Cultural Fund

•  Applications will be made via a simple application form and an expression of interest (Download below)
• Organisations and individuals who are interested in applying should apply to teamwales@britishcouncil.org by 30 June 2023. Fill in the simple application on how you project meets each of the criteria and add to the ambitious plans for the Wales in France project.
• Applicants will be notified of a decision by 7 July 2023
• The fund is open to individuals and organisations working in the field of arts and culture, creativity and wellbeing
•  Applications must be a partnership between at least one organisation or individual based in Wales and at least one organisation or individual based in France.
• There must be one lead applicant, who is based in Wales. 
•  In general, funding should be split equitably between the partners
• Diversity: projects working primarily with Women, LBGTQ+ and/or disabled artists will be favourably scored under the diversity section of the application
•  Artforms/disciplines: Literature, Visual Arts, Music, Film (including Gaming, Virtual and Augmented Reality), Theatre and Dance, Architecture, Fashion, Design.

British Council, Arts Council of Wales/Wales Arts International and Welsh Government will operate a Wales in France Cultural Fund.

The fund will support arts and cultural organisations in Wales to build partnerships in France and showcase Welsh culture as part of the Welsh Government’s Year of Wales in France 2023. Projects will be part of the Wales in France cultural programme, which includes activity around the Rugby World Cup, putting a spotlight on Welsh identity, communicating our unique strengths, bilingualism and commitment to sustainability, inclusion and diversity.  

British Council will manage the fund on behalf of the other partners, who will support financially and with the artistic collaboration and exchange between creative professionals and arts organisations in Wales and France.  British Council is responsible for the fund, in line with British Council standard procedures, and our mission and values.  The  assessment and selection for the fund will be made by representatives of British Council, Arts Council of Wales/Wales Arts International and Welsh Government.

Grantees will be required to acknowledge their participation in the Wales in France programme, and the funders the British Council, Welsh Government and Arts Council of Wales/Wales Arts International in all marketing and comms. Communications guidelines will be shared with all successful applicants.

Wales in France is a collaborative initiative convened by the Welsh Government to spotlight resource and mobilise internal and external stakeholder focus on France. It will provide a framework to harness the profile of the Rugby World Cup, amplify existing links and invest strategically in new connections that bring long-term benefit back to the people of Wales.  

Wales in France includes activity across across culture, education, sport, trade and invest, international relationships and more. In terms of culture, aims of the year is to;

•  Celebrate and showcase Wales’s culture in all its diversity through our arts, heritage, language and culture
• Build lasting and meaningful relationships between Wales and France through the arts and creative industries
• Strengthen Wales’s sector through the innovation, networking, audience building and profile raising abilities of international work.

• Develop public facing performance and celebration projects, at a variety of scales and across all disciplines, which showcase Welsh art and culture in France during the Welsh Government’s Year of Wales in France 2023 year running from March 2023 – March 2024.
• Develop new partnerships and refresh existing partnerships with French individuals, organisations, and networks which have potential for long-term collaboration.
• Deliver a cultural programme that presents Wales as a globally responsible nation as part of Wales’s wellbeing culture model, putting a particular focus on sustainability, bilingualism, equalities, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility.
•  Promote a Welsh presence at the Rugby World Cup 2023 and develop the growing links between sport and culture, focusing activity on host cities, Welsh fanzones, VIP events and the Wales team base camp. We would particularly welcome bids in Nantes, Lyon, Marseille and Versailles.
•  Work with the Wales in France Culture Programme partners to develop stronger links with regions and cities in France.  Of particular interest are Wales RWC game cities, greater Paris region- including Versailles and SQY as well as regions of strategic importance to Wales such as Brittany, where there is a Wales-Brittany MoU, but also with Rhone- Alps and Ile-de-France.
•  Develop a sense of reciprocity through collaborative projects – supporting a broader campaign around Wales being a welcoming nation for French cultural partners.

•  Project outputs must include public-facing activities taking place in France in 2023 or early 2024.
•  Working with a partner in France to deliver activity is preferred and will be preferred at the  assessment stage will be given to collaborative projects. 
•   Timeframe for public events to be delivered is March 2023 – March 2024. Activity will be part of the Wales in France year aligned with the  Rugby World Cup.
•     Projects should have a well thought-through communications plan, which indicates the physical and digital reach of the project and includes how the project will be captured and shared with wider audiences online. A multilingual approach will be expected.
•   Applications with match funding in place will be given greater priority but match funding is not essential
•  Projects should aim to communicate a sense of Welsh identity, communicate our unique strengths multilingualism commitment to sustainability, inclusion, and diversity.
• Projects and applicants should embed principles of equality, diversity and inclusion through the core proposal, budget and design (e.g. Accessibility needs: captioning videos, translations, interpreters, gender of the beneficiaries or project team)
• Projects must demonstrate value-for-money and their approach to environmentally friendly choices (eg train travel where possible)
• Applications should indicate key project milestones and opportunities for physical and digital engagement public engagement
• Projects will submit project reports throughout the delivery year to the British Council, Welsh Government and Arts Council of Wales which capture pre-agreed data about their activity and allow for a wider evaluation to be undertake