Studies & Reports
This section contains the extensive studies and surveys IFA has conducted or commissioned over the years to review our work and understand the changing landscape of arts and culture.
Grant Impact Studies assess the ‘impact’ of grants and projects made by IFA to a particular area of the arts to help us review, strategise and rejuvenate our commitment to the sector.
The Many Lives of Photography: Two Studies on the Impact of Grants made by IFA in the Field of Photography (1995-1996 to 2021-2022) | 2023
Reports by Sabeena Gadihoke and Suryanandini Narain
The two reports sought to examine 38 grants/projects in the field of photography implemented by India Foundation for the Arts (IFA) between 1995-96 and 2021-22. Visual arts scholars Sabeena Gadihoke and Suryanandini Narain were commissioned to study these grants/projects to locate them within the larger scope and milieu of photography, and study their impact on the artists’ journeys.
Click here to read/download Sabeena Gadihoke's report and here to read/download Suryanandini Narain's report
Interior and Landscape: A Study of the Impact of Grants that IFA made to Theatre in a decade 2005-2006 to 2014-2015 | 2021
A report by Neel Chaudhuri
This is a report on the impact of 62 theatre-related grants made by IFA across programmes between 2005-2006 and 2014-2015. The question of impact is crucial for us in order to enhance the way we function and to renew our commitment to the field of arts and culture. Neel was commissioned to examine an information map prepared by IFA, based on six parameters which looked at each project's impact on the grantee, the immediate context, and on the larger field, along with its social, political, cultural or economic influence, reach and recognition. The report, Interior and Landscape, is an outcome of this elaborate two-year long process.
Click here to read/download
Conference Reports give an overview of the various conferences we organise under our programmes, that can be treated as a resource for others in the field.
Connecting the Dots: Lessons from Arts Education | (2023)
A Report by Mridula Rao
IFA, under its Arts Education programme (Kali Kalisu), organised a regional conference from February 22-24, 2023 at MMK College of Visual Arts, Kalaburagi. Over the past decade, the Kali Kalisu programme has actively worked across Karnataka but has not been able to make enough inroads into the Kalyana Karnataka region. To connect with the desires, concerns and aspirations of the people and to join the thoughts, works and practices of artists, educators and art researchers, IFA organised a conference in this region for the first time. Read the report from the conference here.
Voices from the Field reports are conducted to gain a deeper understanding of the current needs in a particular arts and culture field, be it arts research, performance or visual arts, conducted by field experts to gauge the changing perspectives, articulations, and needs of that sector. They support the multi-pronged review that IFA undertakes of each of its programmes once every six to eight years. These reviews are done by field experts and their recommendations are incorporated into our programmes to reshape and recalibrate them according to the changing requirements of the field.
Voices from the Field: Field Report from Teachers, Administrators and Artists | 2021
Reports by Udaya Gaonkar and S Kaladhar
The study sought to analyse and understand the impact of the Arts Education projects supported and implemented by IFA on the school education system from different dimensions and to discover what structural changes are to be undertaken so that arts-integrated projects can have even more positive impact. It was conducted with artists, teachers, school authorities who were previous IFA grantees or had closely participated in these preojects.
Click here to read/download Udaya Gaonkar's report and here to read/download S Kaladhar's report
Voices from the Field: An Overview of Scenarios and Needs for Current Creative, Infrastructural and Support for the Visual Arts and Film in India | 2020
A report by Chithra KS
This survey was conducted in order to gain a deeper understanding of the current needs in arts funding in visual arts that can help shape the future-path for the significant role the grants-making bodies can play. The feedback ranged from the opinion on the Art Practice programme at IFA to the functioning of the funding bodies; the existing gaps in arts funding and emergent needs; different ways of supporting projects/ art production/ practice and the challenges and opportunities ahead for the visual arts in the current situation. The respondents chosen for this study hailed from different professions such as video art, photography, design, theatre, film and literature.
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Voices from the Field: An Overview of the Scenarios and Needs for Current Creative, Infrastructural and Support for the Performance Arts and Literature in India | 2020
A report by Sammitha Sreevathsa
This report was commissioned with an objective to provide an overview of the current creative and infrastructural needs in the field of performing arts in India and of the Arts Practice programme at IFA. It was taken up seven months into the pandemic when most artists were looking for means to rehabilitate and reinitiate their work both digitally and otherwise. The participants belonged to the fields of music, theatre, dance, literature, and puppetry. The responses in the survey ranged from feedback on the Arts Practice programme; reconsideration of the responsibilities of the funder and challenges faced by artists in approaching a funding body.
Click here to read/download
Voices from the Field: Arts Research | 2014
A report by Tanveer Ajsi
This study sought to collect, analyse and report on the current scenario of arts research in the country. The areas covered include: the kind of research that is happening in the field, the key stake-holders of the domain, the changes that have taken place in the recent past, funding strategies, new funders if any, needs of current arts researchers in the country, and the context in which they are situated. This report is a picture of what is happening in the field, partial at best.
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Voices from the Field: Funding Scenarios for the Visual Arts in India | 2013
A report by Aileen Blaney
Researched by Aileen Blaney & Jigna Padhiar
This report was the follow up to a fact-finding exercise with the two-fold objective of seeking to identify the organisations forming the backbone of funding and support for the visual arts in India, offering an analytical viewpoint on the terms of their engagement with the artist community; and, ascertaining existing needs of contemporary visual artists in this country and the infrastructural contexts in which they are situated, focusing on the period between 2010 and 2013, asking if there have been any significant changes in the funding landscape, particularly in terms of who is funding what and how. By locating individuals and organisations in three of India’s major metropolises – Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore – the study gained glimpses into the broader picture of cross-country challenges and concerns for both those seeking and dispensing funding.
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Voice from the Field: Re-imagining the Role of the Funder in a Time of Austerity in India: A Report on IFA's New Performance Programme | 2013
A report by Ramon Moraes Sales Moura
This report coincided with the review of the New Performance programme at IFA. The goal of this project was to assess some of the challenges, needs, perceptions and expectations of performing artists in relation to funders (financial sponsors) and the funding process, and to assess their perceptions of IFA in particular. The analysis provided in the report includes a list of new ways in which IFA could add significant value to its existing financial support of performing artists.
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Baseline studies and surveys dive into a particular field in the arts and culture to bring forth newer practices, demands and questions emerging from the field.
Contemporary Dance in India Today: A Survey | 2019
A report by Annette Leday
This extensive report on the contemporary dance ecosystem in India was produced by Annette Leday, a leading choreographer and director trained in France and India, as a commission of the National Dance Center, Paris (Centre National de la Danse) in 2019. The report, originally in French, includes interviews with contemporary dancers from across India. The translation of this document from French to English was commissioned by IFA along with Association Keli-Paris.
Click here to read/download in French, and here to read/download in English
Theatre Infrastructure Baseline Study | 2009
A report by Usha Rao
The Theatre Infrastructure Cell, with researchers in the field (C. Annamalai in Tamil Nadu, Ekta Mittal in Karnataka, Robin Wahengbam in Manipur, and Yashaswini Raghunandan in Maharashtra) conducted a baseline study to understand the needs and demands of performance infrastructure in ten cities in India. Case studies and essays were commissioned to study a range of artists who have negotiated performance spaces in unconventional ways. Many of these studies have been published in the IFA publication Beyond the Proscenium: Re-imagining the Space for Performance, edited by Anmol Vellani.
Click here to read/download