The Biritsh Council Biennials Connect Grants are now offering grants of up to £9,500 to UK and international biennials / festivals in eligible countries.
Biennials Connect Grants support visual artists’ participation in UK and international festivals and biennials. The grants directly benefit artists by facilitating opportunities for travel, the production of new work, networking, skills building and showcasing through biennial partners.
Table of Content
Summary
Subscribe for Scholarship Alert!
Benefits
Grants of up to £9,500
Requirements
Organisations applying must:
- be one of the following:
- UK biennials or festivals supporting international visual artists’ participation
- international biennials or festivals supporting visual artists’ participation from the UK
- or other visual arts organisations collaborating with a biennial/festival.
- be based in UK or an eligible international country (please see downloads below for the full list of eligible countries)
- be primarily a visual art biennial or festival. Multi-arts biennials and festivals can apply but they must demonstrate a focus on visual arts within their programme
- be supporting artists over the age of 18. If artist travel is included in the project, the artists must be able to travel internationally on valid passports (organisations must arrange travel, transport, accommodations, insurance and visas themselves)
- be supporting artists you have either not previously worked with or supporting new projects with artists you have worked with before
- share the British Council’s commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) and will embed best EDI practices into the activity
- share the British Council’s commitment to paying artists fairly and will ensure artists are fairly compensated for their participation.
Applications by individual artists will not be eligible.
- The core activity or biennial / festival presentation will be from February 2026. The final activity and evaluation must take place before February 2027. Project proposals should have a timeline ending no later than?February 2027.
- Grant applications can be made for projects involving multiple artists, but only one application per biennial organisation can be submitted.
- Festivals can receive a maximum of one Biennials Connect Grant per edition. If you received a grant for a previous or current festival, you can apply and receive another for a forthcoming festival but you cannot receive multiple grants in one festival edition.
Selection Process
Key dates
Applications open: 23 June 2025
Application deadline: 14 September 2025, 23.59 (BST)
Information session, option 1: 9 July 2025, 9.00–10.00 (BST)
Information session, option 2: 9 July 2025, 15.00–16.00 (BST)
Notification of decisions will be sent to applications in the autumn of 2025.
Projects start in February 2026.
Projects finish by the end of February 2027.
Application Deadline
September 14, 2025How To Apply
Are you qualified and interested in this opportunity? Kindly go to
British Council on britishcouncilarts.grantplatform.com to apply
Applications should be submitted online and you'll need to create a free account to complete your application.?
An application must be submitted by one lead applicant. The form has collaboration enabled so you will be able to invite your project partner to collaborate on the form.?
If you would like an offline version of the application form, you can download one from the list below. However, all applications must be made online via Good Grants. The offline form is a sample and may not reflect the final form you must complete. This will be dependent on your answers to some questions.
For more details, visit British Council Grants webpage
