UK

Department for International Trade has launched the year-long Great British Design campaign, with an event in Hong Kong ahead of December's Business of Design Week (BODW). The UK is the partner country for 2019's edition of Business of Design Week taking place 2–7 December 2019.

The UK will bring the biggest ever delegation of internationally-renowned British designers to Hong Kong, including Thomas Heatherwick, Sir John Sorrell (co-founder of London Design Week) and Anya Hindmarsh.

Edinburgh International Festival, taking place 2–26 August, has revealed its full 2019 lineup which includes Stephen Fry, LA Philharmonic, Kate Tempest, and the world premiere of Scottish Ballet's The Crucible.

The annual festival covers arts and culture from all over the world, including opera, classical and contemporary music, dance, immersive and traditional theatre.

Highlights of the programme include:

Opera

Dundee has benefitted from Scotland's first museum of design, V&A Dundee, since its opening in September 2018 with a boost in visitor numbers.

V&A Dundee has welcomed more than 340,000 people in its first three months of operation. Other cultural venues in the area that have benefitted from the new musuem include:

Discovery Point – site of the Antarctic-exploring RSS Discovery ship and museum – saw its visitor numbers increase by 40 per cent in 2018

McManus Art Gallery & Museum saw a 31 per cent increase.

The Department for International Trade is partnering with the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) and Music Publishers Association (MPA) for the annual LA Sync Licensing Mission, held in the heart of Hollywood, on 10~14 June 2019, and is seeking industry organisations and individuals to join them.

The event supports the growth of UK music exports and includes panels, practical sessions, keynote speeches and an exclusive networking reception hosted by the British Consul General, Michael Howells.

National Museums Liverpool (NML) has issued an open call for planners to help them transform its waterfront estate.

The brief for applicants explains: "We wish to create an outstanding visitor destination that connects Liverpool's stunning waterfront with the city, the River Mersey and the significant buildings that together all create such a strong visual identity.

The Mayor of London has released the Cultural Infrastructure Plan, the first for the capital, which seeks to safeguard and grow creative spaces in the city.

As well as the plan, which you can download and read below, there is also a cultural infrastructure toolbox which includes a map which includes transport data and population growth, as well as research and guidance, and help to find, protect and lend a property for cultural use.

A partnership between British Council Scotland and Creative Scotland has led to £138,000 of funding going to 16 organisations after an open call for projects linked to European partners.

Successful bids for the funding receive between £6–10,000, and each project includes at least one European organisation, while helping to promote Scottish work around the world.

Winning organisations are:

Arts Council England and the Centre for Towns are collaborating on a project to find out more about cultural infrastructure and engagement in towns across England.

Aiming to publish findings in autumn 2019, the organisations looks to fill the gaps of other studies which have traditionally skipped over cultural engagement in towns.

National Theatre Wales (NTW) is looking for up to 13 "adventurous and collaborative" artists for a two-week residency on climate change to kick start fresh artistic responses to the "most urgent issue of our times".

Egin is a partnershup between NTW and Natural Resources Wales with support from the National Trust, British Council Wales and Snowdonia National Park, where the residency will take place. The residency will draw on the landscape, social history of the area and insight from active local communities.

The call-out is for any Welsh or Wales-based artists who are:

“I believe we feel safest when we go inside ourselves and find home, a place where we belong and maybe the only place where we really do”

— Maya Angelou