We are pleased to announce details of those selected for the 2014 Cultural Exchange International, UK to Los Angeles residency programme.

Organised by British Council USA, the fellowship grants offer socially engaged emerging cultural leaders in the UK to conduct residencies of two to three weeks with host organisations in Los Angeles.

Owen Griffiths, based between Swansea and Copenhagen, is currently a National Advisor to the Arts Council of Wales on Architecture and Regeneration and a postgraduate student of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, at the School of Walls and Space. Much of his activity as an artist is connected to collaborations, socially engaged practice, artist-led activity and networks as well as consultancy and research. The central point of his research is focused on questions of public space, land use, architecture, sustainability, urban design and community and artist as an agent of change and as host. During his visit to L.A he will undertake research relevant to his developing work in the field of socially engaged practice. He will focus his time on meeting with artist Fritz Haeg and also with the Center for Land Use Interpretation, all leading figures working in this field in both LA and internationally. Alongside this he will visit community green and public spaces of interest such as the gardens and projects mapped by the Los Angeles Garden Council. For the final part of the journey he has been invited by the Center for Land Use Interpretation to utilize their Desert Research Base in the form of a residency.  

Ed Webb-Ingall is a filmmaker with an interest in exploring practices and forms of collaboration. He tends to work with groups using collective film making as means to investigate themes of identity, history, politics and representation. He has written on the history and practice of collaborative film making in the UK. Recent projects have been with the South London Gallery, International Project Space, Tokyo Wonder Site, Tate Liverpool and The British Film Institute. He Co-edited a book on the filmmaker Derek Jarman, published by Thames and Hudson in September 2013. Whilst in LA he will be based at Echo Park Film Center (EPFC), together with them, they will use filmmaking as a means to explore different communities through self-representation, reflection and the act of making and watching together. The outcomes of the exchange will be the continued development of his relationship with EPFC, as well as the development of new partnerships with like minded individuals and groups through the practical application of his practice, included the production of a number of short filmmaking workshops and public screenings, to learn about the potential of the implementation of visual arts practices similar to his own.

Maria Oshodi is the Artistic Director and Founder of Extant, the first performing arts organization in the UK, managed for and by visually impaired professional arts practitioners, as well as a freelance writer and arts consultant. In 2008 Extant became a Regularly Funded Organisation of the Arts Council England and in 2011 became a National Portfolio Organisation. For her exchange to Los Angeles, Maria will engage on a residency in summer 2014 with Watts Village Theatre Company, collaborating with its Artistic Director Lynn Manning. Lynn and Maria are the only two blind artistic directors of African heritage managing professional theatre companies. This fellowship will be a unique opportunity for them to compare the organisational procedures, artistic aspirations and practise of their respective companies, as well as an opportunity to introduce Maria to other disability arts practitioners based in Los Angeles.