ELIGIBILITY:

Biennials Connect Grants are open to UK (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales) and international biennials, festivals and art organisations. Individual artists are not eligible to apply. 

International biennials/festivals must be based in eligible countries. The full list of eligible countries can be found on the program website. 

Before making your application, please read the Application Toolkit and ensure your application meets these conditions:

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. 

BENEFIT:

They have up to £9,500 available for: 

UK biennials/festivals collaborating with visual artists based in ODA* countries 

international biennials/festivals based in ODA* countries collaborating with visual artists in the UK.

They have up to £5,000 available for:

UK biennials/festivals collaborating with visual artists based in non-ODA* countries 

international biennials/festivals based in non-ODA* countries collaborating with visual artists in the UK 

You can apply for up to an additional £2,500 for project access costs