For an assessment of perspectives on arts education, reflected in the syllabi and teaching practices of a range of schools and a teacher-training institute in New Delhi. The study will attempt to uncover significant aspects of arts education policy and highlight efforts towards enlightened arts pedagogy and better evaluation mechanisms.
For a series of workshops for children in and around Bangalore by a storytelling team comprising a teacher, a craft specialist and an administrator. The project will connect storytelling to other creative activities, demonstrate alternative ways of looking at learning, and initiate a plan to establish a resource centre for storytelling and allied activities.
For workshops by a theatre director, a classical dance exponent and a traditional folk theatre group to share teaching and performance techniques and practices. The collaboration is expected to help the theatre group to formulate survival strategies, the dancer to reintroduce narrative singing and storytelling into Kuchipudi performance, and the director to strengthen training for his actors.
For workshops in villages and small towns by urban visual artists/potters and tribal and folk potters to facilitate an exchange of skills and techniques in pottery and ceramics.
For research and examination, by a theatre director, a contemporary actor and a musician, of the textual nature of music in Koodiyattam, the classical theatre of Kerala. The project will result in a new theatre piece and a reworked version of an earlier production.
For continuing the work between an urban visual artist from Mumbai and four traditional artists in Bastar District, Madhya Pradesh, who will gain an appreciation of one another’s aesthetic concerns, techniques and creative processes. Paintings, sculptures and video films that emerge may form part of urban public installations.
For a Karnataka tour of three contemporary shadow-puppetry performances targeted at children and involving university departments of folklore. The performances, which were jointly created by theatre artists, visual artists, musicians and puppeteers, will introduce children to the arts and help sustain folk performance traditions.
For a fresh examination of the dynamics between theatre and social action, by a coordinating body for welfare organisations in rural West Bengal, two social organisations, and three theatre workers. Through fieldwork and a series of workshops, the collaborators will explore how spontaneous performance can be refined to invigorate activist theatre.
For developing concepts and a treatment for a dance video by a contemporary choreographer and a filmmaker. They will examine the architecture of two stone quarries as possible venues for video-recording dance sequences, generate additional images using computer animation techniques, and experiment with grafting these onto the on-site sequences.
For research towards an annotation of hitherto undisclosed material on Indian cinema, including government records, parliamentary debates, interviews, memoranda submitted by trade bodies, and reports of film inquiry committees. The project will highlight the hidden discourses that influence the making of Indian cinema.
For research towards developing curricula, teaching aids and reference materials for Mayurbhanj Chhau. Teachers, dancers, musicians and designers will come together for practical sessions to help systematise the expressive components of this dance form.
For the production and promotion of a national theatre quarterly, and research towards theatre reference works. Seagull plans to evaluate the journal in terms of its content, reach and scope, strengthen its subscription base, and bring out an annual issue in Bengali besides expediting publication of theatre books.
For an artistic interaction between a performance scholar and a theatre group towards the completion of a dance-theatre production based on the history of the devadasi and her dance. The production will examine what was lost, preserved and concealed when sadir or dasi attam was reconfigured as Bharatanatyam under the impact of colonialism and nationalism.
For field research for a doctoral dissertation on identity formation among women dancers in contemporary India, with a particular focus on Kathak exponents. The study is expected to contribute to visual and cultural anthropology through the analysis of how dance is represented in mass media and public festivals.
For the survey and documentation of mural paintings in temples, palaces, dwellings and caves in Orissa. INTACH’s subsidiary, the Orissa Art Conservation Centre, Bhubaneshwar, will undertake technical studies, scientific analyses and visual documentation of the paintings, and develop conservation strategies in tandem with traditional painters.
