Frequently asked questions for potential creative partners

Each proposal should be a partnership between UK and Hong Kong organisations and/or individuals. You can seek collaboration with an UK or Hong Kong organisation independently in advance of submitting your proposal; alternatively, you can indicate in your proposal that you are still looking for a partner to help you fulfil a particular part of your proposal and would welcome the British Council’s assistance with introductions, if you need it. 

In short, no. SPARK festival proposals are welcome from community organisations and the arts and education sectors in the UK and Hong Kong.

Through SPARK 2021 festival, we hope to create connections and partnerships that benefit both Hong Kong and the UK and promote inclusive communities. Submission of proposals can be either from UK and/ or HK arts and/or education institutions, but must have the ambition of one organisation or individual from Hong Kong and the UK working together.

Young people aged 15-35 are our target audience, and we welcome proposals from schools. Any proposals should be aligned with the SPARK theme with elements of Hong Kong-UK partnership.

The theme of SPARK 2021 is creating connections across cultures with a focus on inclusion, diversity, and accessibility. Proposals should aim to include and/or reach people from diverse backgrounds, including people with special needs/ disabilities, ethnic minorities, the elderly, socioeconomically disadvantaged youths and other marginalised groups.

The British Council is able to contribute funding up to a maximum of GBP10,000 per project led by an arts organisation (excluding SPARK Talks). The British Council will assess each proposal before contacting the proposer to discuss potential funding models. Proposers can bring in other funders subject to British Council approval, and the British Council can help to connect proposers with other funding partners where possible. Participating partners will be fully responsible for safeguarding, platform security, running and facilitating their own programme(s), including the provision of personnel to manage their programme development and delivery.

SPARK 2021 festival will take place online between 20-23 October 2021. To be a part of the festival and eligible for the funding (for arts projects), programmes must feature some core content (whether live or pre-recorded) that can be showcased online during this period. Proposals that contain satellite content outside of this period will be considered as long as this first criteria is met.

Registration and viewer numbers will be recorded for all programmes, as well as audience demographic data where available and within privacy allowances. We will also collect evaluation data from different stakeholders at different stages before, during and after SPARK. One of the key impact measurements will be the creation and/or strengthening of UK-Hong Kong partnerships, while another will be in terms of creating greater awareness around issues of diversity and inclusion.  Organisations are welcome to submit their suggestions on any other preferred impact indicators when submitting a proposal. 

We will use the following online platforms for hosting and/or promotion of SPARK: the British Council Hong Kong website, social media platforms and Microsoft Teams for workshops and talks. Proposals using other online platforms are welcomed. We will primarily promote the content to our priority audiences in Hong Kong and in the UK . However, if the platform is accessible in another country or territory, there’s nothing to prevent anyone from accessing the content, should they hear about it. Regardless of the platform used, participating partners will be fully responsible for safeguarding, platform security, running and facilitating their own programme(s), including the provision of personnel to manage their programme development and delivery. 

Yes. A series of SPARK Talks will make up part of the festival. SPARK Talks will be a platform for short presentations delivered by researchers from Hong Kong and the UK. Each session will include a light, accessible three-minute presentation on Microsoft Teams by each of two speakers, one from Hong Kong, another from the UK. The proposal shall include a topic discussion aligned with the theme of SPARK 2021 festival and a SPARK Talks event should not be longer than 30 minutes. For full details, please visit here.  Apart from SPARK Talks, proposals can include other webinar/ talk style events.