For a series of workshops by an architect for middle-school children in three schools in Kolkata towards creating awareness about built heritage, especially in relation to the history and culture of the city. Educational packages will be developed to aid the workshops and site visits.
For researching and documenting the repertoire of biraha (songs of separation) in the folk music of Bengal, towards a musical travelogue in Bengali and English. The project, to be carried out by a contemporary songwriter and performer, will yield an archive of songs and interviews.
For continued collaboration among a painter/puppeteer, a sculptor/puppeteer and a shoe designer/woodworker towards developing full-fledged productions in puppet theatre. The grant will also give shape to the new techniques and styles of presentation that have evolved out of the exploratory phase.
For completing an illustrated manuscript provisionally titled ‘Include by Design: Architecture for the Inclusive Artplace’. The grant will enable the recasting of the manuscript for publication through the use of new photographs and illustrations, and will underwrite the book’s production costs.
For the publication of a book on the use of photography as a social tool by the Bengali upper class in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. The book, to be published by the Oxford University Press, will be made available at a subsidised price.
For developing and implementing a Dance-In-Education programme in Bangalore schools. The programme will introduce students from diverse economic and social backgrounds to contemporary dance and movement arts, train dance teachers and help develop a dance education curriculum.
For making a film on studio portraiture in India, which will explore the human and social dimensions that inform photographs, as also the experience of being photographed. The proposed film will seek to deconstruct the photographs in terms of cultural influences, social aspirations and individual fantasies.
For making a documentary film on the oral legends of Mirabai narrated and sung by the lower castes of Rajasthan. The film will map the alternative texts and performance spaces that refigure the mainstream cultural icon Mira, laying open issues of caste and transgression to scrutiny.
For completing the photographic documentation of manuscript paintings held in Vaishnavite monasteries and private collections in Assam. A digital catalogue of scanned paintings will be made available to users through the Assam State Museum, Guwahati.
For collaborative research between an installation artist/set designer and an anthropologist towards a multimedia installation/exhibition on the visual culture of the Thiyyas, a community from North Kerala.
For making a film on the New-Delhi based theatre group, Jan Natya Manch, that will critically explore its history and contemporary practices. Combining archival footage with documentation of contemporary performances, the film will especially focus on Nukkad Natak (street theatre).
For making a film on women potters, structured as a search for roots by a contemporary studio potter, and focussing on two traditional women potters in Kutch and Manipur. By exploring the ways in which the women have circumvented the taboos associated with the potter’s wheel, the film will foreground a dialogue between tradition and modernity.
For a study on the cultural and artistic significance of metallurgy in Indian antiquity, that would integrate technical, archaeological and art-historical perspectives. Archival research and fieldwork combined with photographic and video documentation will provide material for a book and lead to a script for a documentary film series.
For a dissertation on Ravi Varma’s Pauranik (mythological) paintings with special reference to his use of the feminine icon. The researcher will contextualise the artist’s work within India’s early modern visual culture by exploring the cross-currents that drove the industry for oleographs and popular prints.
