Celebrating social arts practice through intercultural partnerships between the UK and Germany

Cultural Bridge supports arts and cultural organisations across the UK and Germany to develop partnerships that explore social arts practice.


By enabling new and existing connections, Cultural Bridge supports a growing network of organisations committed to sharing expertise and skills, exchanging ideas and collaborating on artistic practices and projects that explore themes and issues faced by communities across both countries.

Through co-investment from Arts Council England, the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, British Council, Creative Scotland, Fonds Soziokultur, Goethe-Institut London and Wales Arts International / Arts Council of Wales, Cultural Bridge has so far supported 49 partnerships through 62 awards, across four rounds of funding since its pilot year in 2021.

Cultural Bridge has recently announced the 20 partnerships for its fourth year of funding, which will support work exploring youth leadership, digital storytelling and emerging technologies, disability-led dance and movement, the intersection of LGBTQI+, neurodivergence and disability, West-African craft and puppetry, circus arts, diaspora communities, music, age inclusion, environmental and climate issues, industrial heritage and more. Explore the 2025 - 2026 programme.

Applications for the 2026 - 2027 programme will open later this year. Join the mailing list and follow @CulturalBridgeNetwork on Instagram for the latest updates.

Find out more:

Explore the current and previously funded partnerships

Read the latest programme and partnership news on the blog

Sign up to the mailing list for the latest news and opportunities

Follow @CulturalBridgeNetwork on Instagram


Evaluating Cultural Bridge:

The Cultural Bridge programme has commissioned tialt (there is an alternative) to evaluate the programme and understand key learning and impacts on the partnerships, participants and communities involved. 

Read the 2021 - 2022 pilot year evaluation in English

Read the 2021 - 2022 pilot year evaluation in German

Read the 2023 - 2024 programme evaluation in English

‘Funding empowers collaborative exchange, laying the groundwork for sustained partnership and meaningful community involvement’ Cultural Bridge funding awardee

‘a rare opportunity to build a cross-border partnership in a manageable, step-by-step way.’ Cultural Bridge funding awardee

Image: Hijinx Theatre (Cardiff, Wales) and tanzbar-bremen e.V. (Bremen, Germany) during their Tier Two partnership, ENTER: Robots Exchange. Photographer: Michael Bause

The 2025 - 2026 projects:

Act Your Age! Youth Leadership in Art and Activism

– Partners: Common/Wealth theatre (Bradford, England & Cardiff, Wales) and FUNDUS THEATER / Theatre of Research (Hamburg)

Bridging Borders: A Collaborative Arts Exchange

– Partners: Sheba Arts (Salford, England) and Iranisches Kulturfest/Termeh Festival (Munich, Bayern)

Bridging Cultures: Digital Storytelling and Creative Connections for Community Empowerment

– Partners: Intercultural Roots for Public Health (Coventry, England) and MakingCulture® e.V. (Coburg, Bayern)

Dance Ability Bridge

– Partners: Dylan Quinn Dance Dance Theatre (Enniskillen, Northern Ireland) and unperform e.V. (Bremen)

Everybody needs a puppet

– Partners: Swallow's Wings Puppetry (London, England) and Dialogus – Kulturelle Vielfalt leben e. V. (Mittweida/Chemnitz, East Germany)

Missing Link

– Partners: Think Circus SCIO (Edinburgh, Scotland) and wheels e.V./Junges Theater (Munster & Berlin)

Sharing Creative Practice

– Partners: Media Education CIC (Edinburgh, Scotland) and Q3.Quartier für Medien.Bildung (Traunstein, Bayern)

Social Circus - Building Bridges

– Partners: Circusful (Belfast, Northern Ireland) and Coraggio (Berlin)

Songs of Neighbours and Strangers

– Partners: Das Clarks (Newport, Wales) and Cargo-Theater (Freiburg, Baden-Württemberg)

Stubborn Optimism: Social Arts Co-Creation and Positive Change in Community Contexts

– Partners: Bright Shadow CIO (Herne Bay, England) and Raum der Künste e.V. (Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg)

The Quiet Room

– Partners: Disability Arts in Shropshire (Shrewsbury, England) and Berlinklusion GbR (Berlin)

Water Chronicles: exploring stories of accessibility in urban water spaces

– Partners: Surge Coop (Newham, London) and Insola (Berlin)

Colour Stories. Evolving journeys: the art of flax & linen

– Partners: Brink! (Belfast, Northern Ireland) and artpark Hoher (Schermbeck, nr Essen)

Exploring Flows

– Partners: Dyffryn Dyfodol (Wales) and Syndikat Gefährliche Liebschaften (Quakenbrück)

North East Moves

– Partners: TIN Arts ltd (Durham, England) and Perform[d]ance e.V. (Stralsund)

Sick in the City: Investigating Queerness and Disability in Public Urban Space

– Partners: University of Atypical (Belfast, Northern Ireland) and COVEN BERLIN (Berlin)

Unlocked

– Partners: Geese Theatre Company (Birmingham, England) and aufBruch (Berlin)

Utopia writing and film collaboration

– Partners: Stellar Quines Ltd (Fife, Scotland) and MPower (Berlin)

We Dance, We Connect

– Partners: Anjali Dance Company (Derby, England) and com.dance (Horben)

Without Walls

– Partners: The Mighty Creatives (Leicester, England) and Werkhaus e.V. (Krefeld)

The 2024 - 2025 projects:

ARCHITEXTS OF CHANGE

– Partners: Angeprangert! Spoken Word (Weißwasser, Germany) and Young Identity (Manchester, England)

Bridging Rural Communities - People, Process, Places

– Partners: Dyffryn Dyfodol CIC (Llanrwst, Wales) and Syndikat Gefährliche Liebschaften (Quakenbrück, Germany)

Chemnitz & Manchester Residency

– Partners: Quarantine (Manchester, England) and ASA-FF e.V./ Freundinnen- und Förderkreis Arbeits- und Studienaufenthalte in Afrika, Asien und Lateinamerika (Chemnitz, Germany)

Co-creating across borders: A tale of two cities

– Partners: Brighton People's Theatre CIO (Brighton, England) and English Theatre Leipzig (Leipzig, Germany)

Collectively Crossing: Affiliation Bridges

– Partners: Kunstverein Leipzig (Leipzig, Germany) and Bistro 21 and Bidston Observatory Artistic Research Centre (BOARC) (Prenton, England)

Colour Stories. Sharing journeys of a dyer's garden

– Partners: artpark Hoher Berg UG gemeinnützig (Schermbeck, Germany) and Brink! (Belfast, Northern Ireland)

Common Values, Shared Dreams

– Partners: The Mighty Creatives (Leicester, England) and Werkhaus e.V. (Krefeld, Germany)

Empowering mixedabled/inclusive dance across international communities

– Partners: Anjali Dance Company (Derby, England) and com.dance (Horben, Germany)

Feminism and Migrant activism

– Partners: Stellar Quines Ltd (Fife, Scotland) and MPower (Berlin, Germany)

New sustainable models for artist-led spaces

– Partners: Assembly House CIC (Leeds, England) and E-WERK Luckenwalde (Luckenwalde, Germany)

The Invisible City

– Partners: Tortoise in a Nutshell (Edinburgh, Scotland) and Theater Gruene Sosse (Frankfurt, Germany)

Uncomfortable Dialogues - Unveiling Marginalized Black Experiences through Dance, Film, and Storytelling

– Partners: MINCE e.V. (Berlin, Germany) and Miss Lulu Creates LTD (London, England)

Unlocked

– Partners: Geese Theatre Company (Birmingham, England) and aufBruch (Berlin, Germany)

Wetland: sharing practices of care and hospitality to engage communities and redefine former industrial spaces

– Partners: Cement Fields (Kent, England) and Floating e.V. (Berlin, Germany)

An Audio Hunt in Easterhouse

– Partners: Produced Moon (Glasgow, Scotland) and Storydive (Hamburg, Germany)

ENTER: Robots exchange

– Partners: Hijinx Theatre (Cardiff, Wales) and tanzbar-bremen e.V. (Bremen, Germany)

Let the Grassroots Grow

– Partners: SET Centre CIO (London, England), Videocity and riesa efau (Dresden, Germany)

My Body is my Castle

– Partners: 4.D (Dortmund, Germany) and ACCA (Leeds, England)

Rap School of Life - Improving Language and Mental Health

– Partners: Kanzi GmbH (Berlin, Germany), Forward Ever Education CIC and Hip Hop HEALS (Birmingham, England)

The Shake

– Partners: The MAC (Belfast, Northern Ireland) and coculture e.V. (Berlin, Germany)

Partners

  • Arts Council England
  • The Arts Council of Northern Ireland
  • The British Council
  • Creative Scotland
  • Fonds Soziokultur
  • Goethe-Institut London
  • Wales Arts International