Grant & Projects

Gundurao Desai


Grant Period: one year and six months

For a wide-ranging engagement and workshops with seventh grade students of the Government Model Higher Primary School, Maski, Raichur District to introduce them to the short stories of Masti Venkatesha Iyengar and enable them to write their own. The outcome will be a publication. The Grantee's deliverables to IFA with the Final Report will include photographs from the workshops, and the publication. Grant funds will pay for costs towards an honorarium, a workshop, professional fees for resource persons, documentation, publication, travel, and an accountant’s fee.

Ronidkumar Chingangbam


Grant Period: one year and three months

For the creation of a musical performance based on notions of Manipuri identity that are embedded in the literature and folklore of the Meitei community, particularly that of its diaspora spread across Assam, Tripura, and Bangladesh. Through extensive field trips and interviews, the project will explore histories, stories, and songs of the Meitei community and its subsequent migration, to understand the constructions and erasures of identity—both within and outside of Manipur. The performance seeks to generate fresh perspectives on the current sociopolitical landscape of the state. The outcome will be the performances.The Grantee’s deliverables to IFA with the Final Report will be an audio CD, documentation from the field trip, stills and video recordings of the premiere performance. Grant funds will pay for honorarium, travel and living, professional fees, a premiere show, studio hire, documentation, production of a CD, research material, and an accountant’s fee.                         

Centre For Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta (CSSSC)


Grant Period: Seven months

For the creation of a multimedia exhibition, a seminar, and performances centred on the archival collection of music and papers of the Senia Gharana exponent, Pandit Birendra Kishore Roy Chowdhury.  The rich collection, comprising the published and unpublished writings of Birendra Kishore, his personal notebooks, music ephemera, and photographs, will enable critical dialogues around music pedagogy, archiving, and engaging with archival materials for musical experimentations. The seminar also aims to foreground regional perspectives in the understanding and writing of music histories. The outcome will be a seminar, an exhibition, and performances. The Grantee's deliverables to IFA with the Final Report will be still and video documentation of the exhibition, seminar and performances, and the papers that will be presented at the seminar. 

Sarbajit Sen


Grant Period: one year

For the creation of a graphic novel that explores the tumultuous history of the rule of the Left Front in Bengal and its eventual collapse in 2011. The project attempts to understand the formation of the middle-class mindscape during this time and the challenges it faces in the current political context. It aims to analyse multiple marginal voices from the fractures of history, with autobiographical references to the artist’s own life. The outcome will be a book. The Grantee's deliverables to IFA with the Final Report will be rough sketches, photographic and textual documentation and the manuscript of the book.

Alice Agarwal


Grant Period: One year

For working with the Archaeology Museum in Deccan College, Pune, which has a rich collection of antiquities and specimens, sourced from excavations and explorations carried out across India over the decades. This fellowship supports a series of public events around the museum collections, with the intention of making the museum a social space—one that will encourage people to think, talk, communicate, meet, learn, and enjoy. This will also be supported by a strong online presence. The outcome will include an experiential exploration of some of the museum galleries, a series of interactive events designed for audiences of different age-groups, an exhibition, talks, and an online presence that will aim to create a virtual community. The Fellow’s deliverables to IFA with the Final Report will be images of the process, audio/video recordings, texts, and a publication, if any.

Anupama Gowda and Pavan Kumar


Grant Period: One year

For working with the Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum (VITM) in Bangalore, which has a rich collection of science and technology objects. For the creation of a programme titled ‘The Mystery-Gen Gadgets’, which will constitute the history and technological development of early gadgets. Their study will focus on the design history of these gadgets and the cross-cultural perspectives connected with their design, production, use, and disposal. The outcome will include an exhibition, workshops, and talks that explore the role and future of contemporary gadgets. The Fellows’ deliverables to IFA with the final report will be images documenting the process, video recordings, texts, and a publication, if any.

Hansa Thapliyal and Jayachandra Varma


Grant Period: One year

For working with the Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum (VITM) in Bangalore, which has a rich collection of science and technology objects. For the creation of a short theatrical performance with young members of the Hyderabad-based theatre-family group Surabhi, that will make visible the scientific processes that are at work in their theatrical productions, especially in their stagecraft. The outcome will include a mini lecture-demonstration production in VITM, Bangalore followed by a workshop led by young members of Surabhi for an audience in Bangalore; and short YouTube videos made with the children about science in their theatre. The Fellows’ deliverables to IFA with the final report will be process images, audio/video recordings, and texts and publication, if any.

Koyna Tomar


Grant Period: one year

For working with the Delhi Visual Archive housed in the Centre for Community Knowledge (CCK), Ambedkar University, Delhi. The Delhi Visual Archive is a repository of the visual history of Delhi, from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, which includes a current holding of 4,500 digitised photographs. This fellowship supports research that will lead to a curated, online, visual exhibition which will use various vantage points in the city to explore life around it. The Fellow will also collect metadata for images/collections, which will become an important resource for future projects at the Delhi Visual Archive. The outcome of the project will include a virtual exhibition. The Grantee’s deliverables to IFA with the final report will be images, audio recordings, texts, and a publication.

Vaibhavi Kowshik


Grant Period: one year

For working with the Delhi Visual Archive housed in the Centre for Community Knowledge (CCK), Ambedkar University, Delhi. The Delhi Visual Archive is a repository of the visual history of Delhi, from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, which includes a current holding of 4,500 digitised photographs. This fellowship supports research that will lead to a curated, interactive, virtual exhibition with experiential visual and audio inputs. In addition, the Fellow will create public programmes through the use of memory pods, using an app and the website, aimed to connect different communities and members of families with each other and the Centre for Community Knowledge. The outcome will include a virtual exhibition and the installation of memory pods. The Grantee’s deliverables to IFA with the final report will be images, audio recordings, the memory pod/app activation, and a publication.

Bhavin Shukla


Grant Period: one year

For working with the Delhi Visual Archive housed in the Centre for Community Knowledge (CCK), Ambedkar University, Delhi. The Delhi Visual Archive is a repository of the visual history of Delhi, from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, which includes a current holding of 4,500 digitised photographs. This fellowship supports research that will explore a middle ground between the two dominant discourses of architecture and anthropology. While architecture has always focused on built structure and monumentality and anthropology on the relationship between material culture and people, this project will explore the role that the built environment has had on shaping peoples’ lives. The outcome will include public programmes such as workshops, lectures, and field trips. The Grantee’s deliverables to IFA with the final report will be images, audio recordings, texts, and a publication.

Maraa


Grant Period: four months

For a set of workshops and a 30-day reconnaissance train journey undertaken by a group of artists, in an attempt to gather diverse perspectives around identity in India. The journey, which will touch four locations Bangalore–Dhemaji–Srinagar–Perambavoor, will involve performances, performative interactions, and interviews with fellow passengers and the crew of the train. The outcome will be a broad performance structure, based on which the project will be further developed on another train journey. The Grantee’s deliverables to IFA with the Final Report will be documentation of the process in the form of stills, videos or sketches made during the journey.

Samma Blu


Grant Period: one year

For working with the collections of ‘Mann Maps’ at the Kalakriti Archives in Hyderabad, Telangana. This fellowship supports research on the maps of Hyderabad, commissioned by the Nizam of Hyderabad in 1908 in the aftermath of the devastating floods in the city. These maps were created under the supervision of Leonard Munn, chief inspector of mines under the Nizam regime. The research aims at studying the idea of map-making and cartography on the one hand, and interaction between the map and its user on the other, in an attempt to understand the human experience of maps. The outcome of the project will include a video art installation, a publication, workshops, talks, and events.

Satyanarayana


Grant Period: over one year

For a project that attempts to bridge the gap in arts based learning in the fourth standard under the government’s Nali Kali programme. This particular programme will take place for the students in the fourth standard at the Government Higher Primary School, Maravanthe, Kundapura Taluk, Udupi. Through a series of workshops he would engage educationists, artists and designers to guide teachers and children in creating a self learning kit that connect their local environment to their syllabus. The outcomes will be the learning kit and a performance. The deliverables of the grant would include photographs from the workshops and performance, the learning kit and a ten to twelve minute video documentation. Grant funds will pay for preparatory costs, honorarium, printing costs, documentation costs, professional fees, travel costs, performance costs, refreshment costs and an accountant’s fee.

Satish KC


Grant Period: over one year

For a project that will enable the eighth grade students of the Government High School (PUC Section) at Malur, Tirthahalli Taluk, Shivamogga, to explore texts from the school syllabus by interpreting it through the poly-vocal rendition of Vadapu which is used in the performance of Puravanthike, a folk art form from the region. Through this process they will consider multiple possibilities of creating performance pieces. The outcome will be a stage performance which will be presented at two to three school venues. The deliverables of the grant would include photographs from the workshops and performance, and a ten to twelve minute video documentation. Grant funds will pay for honorarium, performance costs, professional fees, documentation costs, refreshment costs, costume and music costs, preparatory costs, travel costs and an accountant’s fee.

Soumya Sankar Bose


Grant Period: over a period of six months

For a series of exhibitions of photographs of veteran Jatra artists taken during an earlier IFA supported project by Soumya Sankar Bose, across five remote areas of West Bengal where Jatra artists still live. This will enable the photographer to take his work back to the community and create conversations around the lives of veteran Jatra artists. The outcome of the project will be the exhibitions.

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