Are you an artist from Bradford, UK or an international artist seeking to learn how to take your work to global audiences and make new creative connections with artists worldwide?
Following our appointment as Bradford 2025‘s Cultural Capacity Partner earlier this year, we’re excited to announce our first partnership programme designed to connect artists from Bradford and across the world in an exciting online international exchange programme.
As we embark on the journey to become the UK City of Culture, 2025 – we’re offering a unique opportunity for up to 15 Bradford artists and 15 international artists at any stage of their career. Our International Artist Exchange programme will prepare artists to take their work to new global audiences for the first time and provide and nurture new international artistic collaborations.
Who is it for?
UK artists from the Bradford district and international artists
When is it?
December 2023 - March 2024
Where is it?
This programme will take place online
Apply by
Thursday 30 November at 11 PM (GMT)
Book your place at our online info session
About the programme
Delivered in partnership with Bradford 2025 and generously funded by the British Council, our International Artist Exchange is a unique online artist development programme uniting UK artists from Bradford with their global counterparts.
We’ve assembled a team of skilled facilitators with extensive experience in delivering outstanding arts and performance on a global scale. With their expertise, this programme promises to be an enriching, relevant, and inclusive experience for artists from a range of art forms, particularly those from a performance and live art background.
What will I get out of the programme?
Through this programme, it is our aim that artists will:
- be creatively inspired
- forge global connections with fellow creatives and gain insights into their work, values, and processes
- find out about the different ways of working and the artistic environments across the world
- explore avenues for potential international collaborations and learn how to initiate them
- gain insight into the opportunities and challenges of working outside your home country
- start thinking about international touring and the things you need to consider should you choose to incorporate it into your practice
Though this programme is open to artists from all disciplines, there will be a focus on performance and live arts in some of the course content. This exchange will therefore be most relevant to artists interested in international partnership working as well as presenting and touring work around the world.
When will this programme take place?
This programme will take place between December 2023 and March 2024. Specific dates will be confirmed closer to the time. We expect most sessions to take place at 3:00 PM (GMT).
What is the structure of the programme?
This exchange is designed to strike a balance between learning about each other’s practices and gaining insights into the experiences of artists working internationally.
The programme will consist of:
- 7x online workshop-style sessions each lasting around 2 hours
- opportunities for online ‘Go & Sees’ where artists will watch a range of online international performance or digital work followed by group discussions
- 2x ‘International Inspiration’ sessions with artists and companies currently immersed in extensive international work
Examples of some of the session themes include:
- International sensitivity: context and considerations, language and assumptions and anti-colonial practice
- My Practice, My Place: for artists to get to know one another and share their practices
- Partnerships and ways of working: making connections, building relationships, and collaborating and co-creating across borders
- Negotiations and logistics: for presenting and touring work internationally including commissioning, communications, negotiations, costings, contacts, visas and permits
- International production: covering designing work for international presentation as well as production, technical, transportation, and environmental considerations
- Support organisations and infrastructure: delivered by the British Council about strategic international networks, support organisations and their remits
- International ambition: space for the artists to reflect on what they have taken away from the programme so far and to start to define their own international ambitions
Is this programme for me?
Eligibility
- All applicants must be 18 years old or over.
- UK artists must be living or working in Bradford, or from West Yorkshire with a demonstrable connection to Bradford.
- International artists can be from anywhere in the world, though priority will be given to countries eligible to receive ODA funding.
- The programme will be delivered in English
Participants must have a good understanding of spoken and written English. - The programme will be delivered entirely online
Participants must have access to appropriate equipment to connect via Zoom and an adequate internet connection to sustain engaged participation including the use of a camera and microphone. If you have any access requirements due to a disability, please let us know in your application and we will do what we can to accommodate your needs. - You must be able to attend all the scheduled sessions
The sessions will take place between January and March 2024. The dates will be confirmed in our agreement letter with you upon your offer of a place.
How to apply
To apply, please complete our application form. There are some questions that need to be answered in the form. The main application questions can be answered by typing into the form, or by uploading a video or audio file. To help you prepare your application before completing the form, you can find the main application questions below.
- If you’re based in the UK, what is your connection to Bradford?
Tell us a bit about you
We’d like to know about…
– Your practice and how you make work
– What artform(s) you usually work in
– The kind of projects you’ve worked on or created in the pastTell us a bit about what excites you about this programme and what you hope to get from it
This might be things like…
– What you hope to find out more about or the questions you’d like to answer
– The people and artists you hope to meet
– Why now is the right time for you to take part in a programme like thisTell us a bit about what you think working internationally could mean for you in the future
This could be things like…
– How you think it might impact your process or way of working
– The kinds of opportunities it could bring
– Any thoughts you have had about places or regions where you think your work would connect with people
The deadline to apply is Thursday 30 November 2023 at 11 PM (GMT). We aim to confirm the outcome of applications by Friday 8 December 2023.
To find out more about the programme, join us for our online information session on Tuesday 21 November at 3 PM (GMT) – book now
If you have any questions or need to complete your application another way, please email us at hello@bdproducinghub.co.uk.
Bursaries and access support
We can provide bursaries and cover access costs to enable you to attend this programme. Please let us know what you need on confirmation of your place.
Bursaries are a contribution towards your time to help you attend when you might otherwise be working. You can claim up to £50 per session.
Access costs are for additional costs you may have to pay to enable you to attend; things like disability support, sign language interpretation, childcare, or digital access support. Please note that for our International Artist Exchange Programme we cannot cover English language interpretation support or translation costs.
We do not means-test or ask you to prove that you need this financial support, but we need to agree in advance on what costs we will cover (wherever possible) and will ask you to provide receipts to claim costs back from us. So that we can continue to provide access support to people who may not otherwise be able to participate in our programmes, please only apply for bursaries or access funds if you need them.
This programme is kindly supported by:
About Bradford Producing Hub
Founded in 2019, Bradford Producing Hub (BPH) is an arts development organisation that tests radical new approaches to producing work, supporting talent, developing a local arts workforce, and partnering with communities across Bradford to reimagine the city as a thriving creative hub.
BPH supports artists, producers, and small companies through funding, grants, mentoring, training, development, and networking opportunities to establish Bradford as a city that nurtures homegrown talent.
In 2023, Bradford Producing Hub were appointed as the Cultural Capacity Partner of Bradford 2025, UK City of Culture.
About Bradford 2025
Bradford 2025 is the organisation delivering the programme of activity for the UK City of Culture 2025. Awarded every four years by Government, the UK City of Culture title has had a transformational impact on previous host cities, securing millions of pounds of investment and acting as a catalyst for creative place-making and culture-led regeneration.
This year, Bradford 2025 is building the foundations of its organisation to be able to deliver a transformational programme of events and activity for (and with) the Bradford district in 2025. Initiatives with key partners are in progress including:
- a Cultural Capital Grants fund with Bradford Metropolitan District Council. Launched in June, the grants are designed to deliver projects that will increase the cultural infrastructure of the district and enable more people – Bradford residents and visitors, to access and participate in cultural activities during 2025 and beyond
- a joint design competition with the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) to source a design for an iconic travelling performance venue
Bradford 2025 is aligned with the Cultural Place Partnership which includes Bradford Council, University of Bradford and other representatives of the cultural sector, alongside national funders; Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Arts Council England, and National Lottery Heritage Fund.
About the British Council
The British Council is the UK’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities. They support peace and prosperity by building connections, understanding and trust between people in the UK and countries worldwide. They do this through their work in arts and culture, education and the English language. They work with people in over 200 countries and territories and are on the ground in more than 100 countries. In 2021-22 they reached 650 million people. Their generous support will connect international artists with their Bradford counterparts in an exciting online international exchange programme.
