The Connections Through Culture (CTC) grants programme nurtures fresh cultural partnerships between the UK and select countries in Asia Pacific and Europe. These grants support new ideas and collaborations from artists and cultural organisations at any stage of development.  

The latest round of Connections Through Culture programme supports a diverse range of projects spanning artistic disciplines and themes. From diversity and inclusion to climate change and beyond, these collaborations bring together partners across borders to generate fresh ideas and creative solutions to today’s shared challenges. 

CTC support new connections, exchanges, and collaborations between artists, cultural professionals, creative practitioners and art and cultural organisations. 

2025 Grant Recipients: Sri Lanka

An Oak Tree to a Banyan Tree

Sri Lanka: Kanchuka Nayani Dharmasiri 
UK: Tim Crouch 
“An Oak Tree to a Banyan Tree” is a theatrical collaboration that explores translation, performance and cross-cultural exchange. It reimagines Tim Crouch’s internationally acclaimed play An Oak Tree in a Sri Lankan context, translated into Sinhala by Kanchuka Dharmasiri. This radically experimental play invites audiences to rethink the politics and poetics of performance, as well as personal and political realities.

Emerging Voices: South Asia x UK

Sri Lanka: Academy of Design (AOD) 
UK: Fashion Scout (Merit Events Ltd) 
Emerging Voices: South Asia x UK is a cross-cultural collaboration between emerging designers from Sri Lanka and the UK, supported by AOD and Fashion Scout. Blending traditional South Asian craftsmanship with contemporary design, it explores identity, sustainability, and cultural heritage. The project empowers young creatives to craft authentic narratives using techniques such as batik, beeralu lace, and dumbara weaving.

Living Looms, Breathing Lacquer: Co-creating Ecological Futures with Sri Lankan Artisan Heritage

Sri Lanka: Prof. Sudarshana Bandara (University of Peradeniya) 
UK: Royal College of Art (Dr Dilusha De Zoysa Rajapakse) 

Other partners: The Media & Special Project Bureau of the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic (Sri Lanka) 
The project safeguards endangered ecological knowledge embedded in two traditional Sri Lankan crafts: ceremonial sunshade weaving (Seesath) and lacquer work (Laksha). Through Oral history interviews and co-design workshops, it co-creates a digital storytelling archive. 

 

Sri Lanka and Scotland: connections through tea

Sri Lanka: Dr. Shyamantha Bandara (Tea Research Institute of Sri Lanka) 
UK: University of the Highlands and Islands- North, West and Hebrides 
This research project will explore the personal histories of Scottish tea planters who lived and worked in Sri Lanka through interviews with themselves and their families. It will look at their motivations, daily work, business affairs, legacy, and the experience of living and working across two worlds.

Weather Reports: Sounding Sri Lanka’s Climate Across Diaspora and Homeland

Sri Lanka: Imaad Majeed 
UK: Cassie Layton (aka Toulip Wonder)  
Other partners: Colomboscope Festival (Sri Lanka), DreamSpace Academy (Sri Lanka) and Suren Seneviratne (UK) 

Weather Reports is a collaborative trilingual sound and performance project bringing together 10 Sri Lankan artists from the homeland and the UK to creatively respond to climate change in Sri Lanka. A programme of talks, workshops, skillshares and performances will be presented during the colomboscope festival.

Weathering Grounds

Sri Lanka: Meshground 
UK: ClimArts 
Other partners: Alleyne Dance (UK) 

Weathering Grounds: A Choreographic Exchange for Intersectional Climate Justice is a Sri Lanka–UK research project exploring how dance can respond to climate change, inequality, and post-conflict trauma. Through online labs, an intensive and choreographic R&D in Colombo, Sri Lankan artists will engage in climate storytelling, embodied resilience, and movement research.