Stuart WoodFestival UK* 2022 has revealed the 30 teams each awarded up to £100,000 for its research and development phase.
Festival UK* 2022 is the working title for what was previously dubbed the ‘Festival of Brexit’ – a festival celebrating British creativity and innovation – when it was announced by former PM Theresa May.
It opened applications from those working in the sciences, technology, engineering, arts and maths back in September. These applications have now been combined into a series of 30 mixed groups, from 299 submissions. These 30 will be further narrowed down to ten before full production begins on the festival.
Among those included from the arts & cultural sector are representatives of Festival.org; the New Vic Theatre; Manchester International Festival; Wild Rumpus and Edinburgh International Festival. Hugh Brasher, event director of the London Marathon, also features on one of the teams.
The full list of teams can be viewed here.
Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden commented: “These 30 teams show our world-class British creativity at its very best – risk-taking, groundbreaking and diverse. They’ve gone through fierce competition to get here and highlight exactly what’s possible when organisations from every part of the UK work together. I cannot wait to see their daring ideas come to life.
“With Festival UK* 2022, the Platinum Jubilee and the Birmingham Commonwealth Games, 2022 is shaping up to be a truly extraordinary year of celebration for the whole United Kingdom.”
Chief Creative Officer for Festival UK* 2022 Martin Green added: “Festival UK* 2022 is a massive experiment in creativity with the core values of being open, original and optimistic, and encouraging teams to think big. It’s wonderful that so many brilliant people, offering extraordinary creativity across STEAM, want to collaborate beyond their usual disciplines and with people they might not have worked with before. It hasn’t been an easy selection process, so we’re really pleased to hear that some new creative relationships will continue amongst those who were not chosen, as well as being excited to see what the 30 Creative Teams come up with over the next couple of months.”