Our work in Chile

United Kingdom – Pacific Alliance Seminar

The British Council and the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, in partnership with the Global Innovation Policy Accelerator (GIPA) supported by the Newton Fund, organised a seminar entitled “Strengthening the innovation ecosystems of the Pacific Alliance: putting higher education at the heart of successful innovation policy and practice”, which took place in 2017, in Valparaiso, Chile.

Over 120 people participated in the seminar, inaugurated by the then Minister of Economy, Luis Felipe Cespedes, among other policymakers from the UK and Pacific Alliance countries involved in promoting linkages between industry and higher education institutions, as well as representatives from businesses that have developed robust partnerships with HEIs.

London Craft Week

Financed by the Chilean Government through the Ministry of Culture’s International relations department, and supported by the British Council’s office in Chile, the exhibition ‘Chilean Crafts, Human Natures’ took place in 2020 and was the first time that a collection of Chilean craft works was put on display in the UK.

 Curated by Romain Julia, the 13 makers invited to the exhibition represented some of the best Chilean crafters have to offer. From basketry and weavings to stoneware and silver Mapuche jewellery, these artisans displayed a broad array of hand-made goods of the highest standard at London’s Zari Gallery. 

Royal Court Theatre

The Royal Court Theatre International Dramaturgy Program promoted emerging writers and an initiative organised by the Fundación Teatro a Mil with the collaboration of the British Council in Chile and by the association of different theatre entities from Peru, Argentina, and Uruguay.

Between 2011-2013, 12 Chilean authors were chosen to participate in Drama workshops, all with works related to the forty years of the military coup. Five of them presented dramatized versions of their texts on the stages of the Royal Court Theatre.

From 2016 to 2018, three in-person workshops were held with 15 Chilean, Argentine and Uruguayan playwrights, led by Elyse Dodgson, head of the international program at the Royal Court Theatre, and with the participation of playwrights Tanika Gupta and Rory Mullarkey. 

In 2020, after a successful call under the umbrella of this program, seven Chilean playwrights and seven Peruvian writers met to participate in the first sessions of the International Dramaturgy Program at the Royal Court Theatre.

Creative Economy course

Our Creative Economy course offered key stakeholders in cultural policies and program and activity design in Chilean Arts and Culture the opportunity to generate strategies and operational approaches for effective program/project implementation to lead to a sustainable and prosperous cultural economy.

The course consisted of an online platform for 300 officials from the Ministry of Culture, Arts and Heritage, CORFO, ProChile and the Ministry of Finance. A selection of 60 registered participants also participated in two face-to-face workshops given by British experts that took place in Santiago and Temuco.