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: New Zealand

Hiwa-i-te-rangi: Returning, Reconnecting, Reawakening

New Zealand: Auckland Museum 
UK: Oriental Museum, Durham University 

Auckland Museum will host an eighteenth-century pauku (war cloak) on a five-year research and exhibition loan from the Oriental Museum, Durham University. The pauku is a rare and prestigious kākahu (cloak), one of only five in existence, and all are held overseas. The pauku's haerenga (journey) to New Zealand represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reconnect all five kākahu and return knowledge to senior Māori weavers.

 

Ka Mua Ka Muri - Walking Backwards Into the Future

New Zealand: CIRCUIT Artist Moving Image 
UK: LUX Scotland  
 
Ka Mua Ka Muri explores artistic strategies for sustainable futures through moving image practice. Through screenings and online conversations, the project connects artists from Aotearoa and Scotland to examine how contemporary moving image technologies activate ancestral knowledge, sustain connections to land and home amid displacement, and inspire new models of activism and resilience.

The UK-NZ Playwriting Exchange

New Zealand: Auckland Theatre Company 
UK: Simon Stephens 

The UK-NZ Playwriting Exchange will bring one of the UK’s most prolific and celebrated playwrights Simon Stephens to Aotearoa New Zealand for an intensive week-long programme in February 2026, hosted at Auckland Theatre Company. The collaboration will engage over 80 New Zealand theatre practitioners across professional, educational, youth, and public sectors through co-designed workshops. 

Whanganui X Dundee: Textile Legacies

New Zealand: UNESCO City of Design Whanganui 
UK: UNESCO City of Design Dundee 

Whanganui X Dundee: Textile Legacies is a residency programme that connects indigenous and ancestral textile practices between Whanganui, New Zealand and Dundee, Scotland, to foster meaningful cultural and creative exchange. The project initiates a new connection between two UNESCO Cities of Design, supporting the development of contemporary textile design specialists through a reciprocal international residency