For the development of teaching methods based on the visual arts to improve the character of classroom interactions and enhance the quality of elementary education in Chamarajnagar district, Karnataka. A team of educationists, researchers and art educators will build on the local community’s understanding of the arts and the crafts economy of neighbourhood villages to generate a curriculum and develop new learning and teaching practices. In collaboration with village school teachers, the team will produce a resource book and tool kit to enable teachers to use the visual arts in the classroom.
For creation of a theatre production that will bring to light the suppressed history, subculture and marginalised lives of the mill workers of Mumbai, who lost their jobs en masse as a result of the textile strike in the 1980s. The mill workers once exercised a very strong influence on Mumbai’s culture but their plight has largely been ignored in the raging public debate and legal battles over the future development of the mill lands. The production will be shown to mainstream audiences as well as working class communities in the mill lands area and elsewhere.
For the making of a non-fiction film based on the Bengali text Hutom Pyanchar Naksa. The film seeks to use the text––which documents the excesses, decadence and cultural richness of the nineteenth century Bengali bhadralok––as an entry point to explore the silences in the narratives of colonialism and modernity. Envisaged as a dialogue between past and present, the film will involve extensive documentation and interpretation of public life in contemporary Kolkata and of various subaltern art forms like khisti, kheud, charak and sang, revisiting places and practices mentioned in the text.
For the further development of a new performance form called Versedance. Three short pieces of dance-theatre, based on poems by Rainer Maria Rilke, Amrita Preetam Singh and Jibonananda Das, will be created and performed in Kolkata. The pedagogical possibilities Versedance will also be explored with students at two universities in the city.
For digitising the archive of a literary magazine in order to maximise its website’s potential to serve as an educational resource and be an avenue for revenue generation. Marketing initiatives that target Indian and foreign universities and institutions are expected to help the magazine to become self-sustainable.
For an exploration of the manifestation of Sufi thought in the lives of mofussil communities in Awadh and Punjab. The project, undertaken by a writer and a filmmaker, will enable them to approach Sufism through the filter of their different perspectives on contemporary Islam. The written texts, audio recordings and still photographs that emerge will generate material for a video film.
For translating a theatre group’s production Brhannala into a film envisaged as a work that will explore the intrinsic differences between theatre and cinema in relation to ideas of space and time. Members of the theatre group, who are used to sharing a physical space with the audience, would be led to re-imagine their roles when they act in the film.
For an exploration, by two dancers, of the language of movement through the idioms of contemporary dance and ‘film dance’—dance seen in popular cinema—in order to understand where they intersect and how they differ. The process of collaborative creation of new work would be documented and shared in workshops and other teaching contexts.
For an interdisciplinary workshop, led by an organisation researching Mumbai’s urban culture, to initiate multi-disciplinary collaborations on Mumbai’s industrial history and the Mill Lands in particular. The workshop is expected to catalyse a series of Industrial Museum Workshops and culminate in the setting up of an Industrial Museum Archive.
For conducting theme-based museum education workshops for junior- and middle-school children in eight schools in Kolkata with a view to integrating museum visits with the teaching of history in the classroom. Following preparatory research in the Indian Museum, Kolkata, educational packages and multimedia presentations will be developed as workshop aids.
For identifying indigenous documentation methodologies and translating Malayalam folklore into English. An art historian working closely with a folk group will study the pernicious implications of the caste system on the future of ritual performance. The group will also interact with a similar community based in Chattisgarh.
This Grant was amicably cancelled based on reasons mutually agreed upon by the Grantee and IFA due to unavoidable circumstances.
For the production of the Seagull Theatre Quarterly (STQ) and the creation of marketing and fundraising capabilities that would enable the journal to become self-supporting over time.
This Grant was amicably cancelled based on reasons mutually agreed upon by the Grantee and IFA due to unavoidable circumstances.
For putting in place a multi-pronged process to reinvigorate the bhakti and sufi music of the Punjab. Systematic audio documentation bolstered by an innovative marketing strategy—direct sales by the performers in the rural market and online sales from a website—is expected to economically benefit the performers and expand their audience.
For the development of Correlated Objective Music Education and Training (COMET), a three-year professional music-education programme that uses technology to simplify the teaching and learning of music. The grant will also be used to develop short-term music education courses using COMET methodology, and for promotional and fundraising activities that will make the programme self-sustainable.
For three annual editions of a residency programme for fresh graduates of visual art schools across India, to culminate in three annual exhibitions. Each year, five artists will spend four weeks with an art critic at the Khoj studios in New Delhi, exploring their creativity and engaging with their peers and with senior artists.
