UK/Brazil Season of Culture 2025-26

What is the Season’s concept and its thematic pillars?

Flows | Fluxos

The UK/Brazil Season ofCulture will honour the cultural heritage that has influenced Brazil and the UK past and present, while also looking ahead to explore how the arts and human creativity will shape our future and address the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. At the centre of the Season lies the recognition of Flows – the ongoing evolution of cultures within a world in continuous movement and dynamic interaction, encompassing the flows of time, people, nature and information, which together form the rhythm of life. Within this concept of flows the programme will focus on five thematic pillars to draw focus and inspiration for exciting new work.

Pillar 1: Culture and Climate – It will explore how the arts can inspire meaning and generate ideas to help our societies navigate the environmental challenges that lie ahead. Through creative enterprise, sustainable practices, storytelling, and new works, COP30 in Brazil provides a platform for culture to influence lasting global climate debate and action.

Pillar 2: Culture and Place - It will investigate how culture and creativity are experienced in public spaces and how strong civic design enhances the creative potential of a place.

Pillar 3: Culture and Voices – It will intentionally programme activities in places and with people who have been underrepresented and underserved, ensuring opportunities for hidden talents to be recognised and showcased.

Pillar 4: Culture and Technologies - It will explore artists taking imaginative leaps with technology, innovating, creative expression, identity, and ownership.  Diversifying digital representation and encouraging critical engagement with technologies.

Pillar 5: Culture and Joy – If culture is meaning, it is joy too. The theme will connect with the history, the practice and the future of collective experiences culture provides, like Carnival, considering how cultural heritage and ritual serve as community builders, as spectacle, as resistance and as collaboration.

For a complete guidance on the themes, please download the Terms of Reference.

The grants are open to a diverse range of organisations, charities and arts practitioners both in the UK and Brazil, regardless of size. Applications are encouraged to a wide variety of entities, including festivals, museums, theatres, community arts organisations, cultural institutions, etc. 

All applications must involve a partnership between at least one UK based and one Brazilian partner. 

Grants are divided into two tiers:

TIER 1: GBP 50,000 - This tier is designed to support projects that are more focused, often led by organisations or those new to international collaboration. 

TIER 2: GBP 100,000 - Tier 2 is suitable for organisations with experience in managing complex projects and those capable of delivering extensive, multifaceted initiatives in collaboration with international partners. 

A greater number of projects are expected to be funded at the Tier 1 level, as this option provides more available grants and broader opportunities for funding and support

Applications must be submitted through the online form and should be completed in English or Portuguese depending on where the project will be physically delivered.  

Projects must be delivered in either Brazil or the UK or both countries.

Brazil: We aim to decentralise and democratise the offerings of this Open Call, ensuring broad representation from diverse regions of Brazil. We strongly encourage organisations from all parts of the country to participate.

UK: We also aim to decentralise and democratise the offer in the UK, involving organisations from the four nations (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) for a diverse and comprehensive representation of cultural perspectives and contributions from across the UK.

Brazil and the UK: Projects can be implemented in both countries, and proposals are encouraged to design activities that reflect and engage with the unique cultural contexts of Brazil and the UK. The lead applicant must be a Brazilian organisation to ensure compliance with contractual and operational requirements.

Projects may be delivered in face-to-face, digital, or hybrid formats, depending on what best suits the project’s context.

We are committed to ensuring that a wide variety of art forms are represented in the final selection. The aim is to support and showcase projects that span across different artistic disciplines, enabling a rich and diverse cultural exchange between the UK and Brazil.

Proposals are encouraged to consider how underrepresented groups such as indigenous communities  and people, Afro-descendants, LGBTQIA+ individuals , and disabled people can be actively involved in the creation or experience of the work.

Proposals will be selected based on their final evaluation scores, with those achieving the highest scores receiving funding first. A list of highly ranked proposals that are not initially funded due to budget constraints will be created. Should further resources become available, we may allocate additional funding to these proposals, allowing more projects to receive support. This ensures that a wider range of impactful projects can be considered for potential funding beyond the initial announcement.

Objectives, activity, and viability: 40%

Does the project proposal support the aim of the Season in relationship? Is it of a high-quality, achievable and aligned with at least one of the themes?

Partnership, contribution and legacy: 40%

Does the project support UK and Brazil organisations to strengthen and further develop their partnership? Does it deliver benefit to individuals both from the UK and in Brazil?

Innovation, Diversity, and Sustainability: 20%

Does your project encourage innovative and creative approaches, while promoting elements such as gender equality, diversity, inclusion, and environmental sustainability?

Applicants must refer to the Terms of Reference for full guidelines.

Deadline

Applications should be submitted using the form on this page to be received by 10 January 2025 - 23:00 (BRT). 

For any questions, please refer to the FAQs document and/or contact: UKBRAseason@britishcouncil.org