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: Malaysia

(A catalogue of) Documental Monuments

Malaysia: Malaysia Design Archive 

UK: Rose Nordin  

(A catalogue of) Documental Monuments is a collaborative research project between artist Rose Nordin, London and the Malaysian Design Archive, KL. The project activates the archive's collection of social and visual ephemera as source material for artistic response, drawing on Stuart Hall’s concept of the “living archive” and Saidiya Hartman’s method of speculative fabulation.

Bridging Futures for Skateable Cities - Civic Space

Malaysia: Harold Egn  

UK: Take A Part 

Through conversations with Plymouth skaters, podcasting, and creative mapping, the project explores how skate culture connects to the regeneration of the city centre and the future of skateable urban spaces. Linking Egn’s socially engaged practice in Sabah with the lived experiences of Plymouth’s skate community, the work creates space to imagine cities that are open, playful, and shaped by the communities who will use them. 

Cipta Seni Incubator: Untold Stories

Malaysia: Sharmilla Ganesan 
UK: Tom Curteis 

Cipta Seni Incubator: Untold Stories is an artist development programme that provides sustained creative development resources, critique, and mentorship to independent artists and collectives from Malaysia's marginalised communities. Performance artists selected through an open call will go through a five-month programme developing one work/performance each, while networking and learning from global arts experts. 

Disappearing Voices of the Lotud High Priestesses in Sabah, East Malaysia

Malaysia: Judeth John Baptist / Sabah Seamex Association 

UK: University of Leicester 

This community-driven project aims to preserve the endangered ritual poetry of the Lotud, an Indigenous group in Sabah, East Malaysia. With fewer than six priestesses fluent in this sacred oral tradition, the knowledge is at risk of vanishing. By co-producing a bilingual short film with Indigenous creatives, this project makes the poetry accessible through storytelling. 

Echoes of Water

Malaysia: Kah Hoe Yii / Segi College 

UK: Hyelim Kim 

This project explores the intersection of nature, culture, and music by capturing water soundscapes from the diverse ecosystems of Malaysia and the UK. Using traditional wooden wind instruments and field recordings, the project will inspire soundscape compositions that integrate composition and improvisation. It will include public performances and educational workshops to raise awareness of regional water ecosystems.

Impressions Across Borders: A Printmaking Exchange between Kuala Lumpur and Sheffield

Malaysia: Lostgens' 

UK: C & G Artpartment 

This project is a collaborative exchange-residency between two community-driven art organisations: Lostgens’ in Kuala Lumpur (KL), Malaysia, and C & G Artpartment in Sheffield. Rooted in traditional printmaking and expanded through film and critical dialogue, the programme centres on cultural exchange between Malaysian artists and communities in the UK while engaging wider British audiences in conversations about identity, heritage, and sustainability.

Sabah’s Future Climate Chronicles: Weaving Stories of Heat, Food and Water through Digital Simulation and Community Lived- Experience

Malaysia: Forever Sabah 
UK: Ecosystem2 
 
Sabah’s Future Climate Chronicles combines data science, technology, and storytelling to create an interactive digital simulation on the Cesium platform. Merging fine-scale climate modelling with Indigenous youth-led video storytelling, the project humanises scientific data by grounding it in lived experiences. Presentations of lives and livelihoods alongside climate models aim to spark awareness and inspire conversations on climate change in Sabah.

Seasonality of the Anthropocene

Malaysia:  Jakob van Klang 

UK: Felicia Liu – University of York 

Seasons, as we know them, are changing in the contemporary climate and ecological crises. This project bridges environmental art, activism, and academia to explore how seasons change in contemporary times and what it means for us. The project seeks to open new avenues for communicating and advocating for climate and environmental action and (re)discover the interconnectedness of humans and nature.