Arts projects funded to take Welsh culture to India

Eleven arts projects will get funding to take Welsh culture to India as part of the UK-India 2017 cultural season.

Welsh and Indian creative professionals will travel to each other's countries to work together and produce new works including books, music and dance.

The projects will get a share of the £450,000 India Wales Fund.

It is a joint Wales Arts International and British Council scheme which aims to help build relationships between the two countries.

Performances will take place in India and Wales and some of the work will be available online, with artists and audiences in both countries benefiting from workshops, tours and talks.

The projects include:

• Theatr Iolo will work with ThinkArts, an Indian company that produces arts events for children, to develop new theatre for babies and youngsters

• Parthian Books will work with India's Bee Books on their project Through the Valley, City, Village, which will see Indian and Welsh writers working together in Bengal and Wales to produce a new book

• Welsh theatre company Living Pictures will tour India with their production Diary of a Madman, working with Indian company QTP Entertainment to provide technical skills workshops - a performance will take place at the Tata Steel-sponsored Literature Live event in Mumbai

The full list of selected projects will be announced at the Wales Millennium Centre by Economy Secretary Ken Skates.

Chapter Arts is one of Wales' cultural names that will be building links with India

He said: "The UK-India Year of Culture 2017 offers an important opportunity for Wales and India to refresh and strengthen these links and also to create new dynamic connections and creative collaborations."

Indian Honorary Consul to Wales, Raj Aggarwal, said: "Wales and India share a love of music, dancing, theatre and literature so this cultural exchange is a fantastic opportunity for each country to share the heritage of each other's performing arts.

"A collaboration of Welsh, English and Bengali writers will bring together the works of six writers with live performance and the publication of a new tri-lingual work.

"This is an amazing opportunity not just to see and enjoy the other country's culture and talent, but to actually work together to create a hybrid from the two that fuse our nation's cultures in the future."