Staying Connected #24 | Ways of Seeing and Listening | August 03, 2023
We are delighted to share with you many exciting new
The newsletter also brings to you recordings of conversations with artists on IFA implemented projects and grants from the past few months, the new projects implemented by us, open calls for proposals, reports on the impact of the grants and projects implemented by IFA, and our brand new IFA Archive Podcast!
Images from the cineqawwali archive
Experience this online archive of qawwali songs used in Hindi cinema, from the 1940s to 2020s! Yousuf Saeed’s project tries to document and define the boundaries of India’s cinema qawwalis as a genre different from other song types, analysing how the cinema industry used them to tell its stories as well as entertain the masses, often subverting the ‘traditional’ qawwali beyond its norms.
Project Showcase@IFA
Project Showcase@IFA is a series of monthly presentations to showcase, discuss, and engage audiences with the diverse projects we support and implement across programmes. Watch and listen to four such conversations held between January and May 2023 on varied themes, from artworks created in collaboration with brick-kiln workers to the unpacking of what Indo-Christian art means today.
Unjustified looked at the IFA implemented project with Birender Kumar Yadav, in which he had created a set of artwork in collaboration with the workers of the brick kilns of Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh to highlight their inhumane working conditions.
This session was held in Hindi.
Birender Kumar Yadav is Project Coordinator for this Foundation Project implemented by India Foundation for the Arts (IFA), under the Arts Practice programme, made possible with support from Sony Pictures Entertainment Fund.
An Octagon and a Square was a session with contemporary artist Ish Shehrawat that examined the intersection of music and technology, sound as an element of sculpture-making, and transience as an essential character of contemporary art.
Ish Shehrawat received a grant from India Foundation for the Arts (IFA), under the Arts Practice programme, made possible with support from Tata Trusts, with the corpus interest of an earlier seed grant.
ಸಿಂಹಕಟಾಂಜನ ಮತ್ತು ಇತರ ಶಾಸನಗಳ ಅಧ್ಯಯನ / Simhakatanjana and Other Inscriptions with theatre practitioner Manjunatha A talked about the IFA implemented project that engaged students of Government High School in Baganakatte, Shivamogga in understanding the history of, and the aesthetics behind the stone inscriptions of the region. Rajesh Hirejambur, a teacher at the school also shared his experiences.
This session was held in Kannada.
Manjunatha A is Project Coordinator for this Foundation Project implemented by India Foundation for the Arts (IFA), under the Arts Education programme.
Re-Cognising Dance: Conversations around the Practice and Performance of Indian Dance Forms was a session with Mahalakshmi Prabhakar and Aranyani Bhargav about a project implemented by IFA titled Re-Cognising Dance, an online space intended to have constructive dialogues around the complex history of Indian dance forms.
Mahalakshmi Prabhakar and Aranyani Bhargav are Project Coordinators for this Foundation Project implemented by India Foundation for the Arts (IFA), under the Arts Practice programme, made possible with support from Sony Pictures Entertainment Fund.
The Altar of Time: A History of India's Christian Art through objects from the Museum of Christian Art (MoCA), Goa was a session with Anirudh Kanisetti and Kevin Fernandes about the podcast they produced The Altar of Time: A History of India's Christian Art, that narrates the history of Goa using objects from the museum's collection of Indian Christian art.
Anirudh Kanisetti is Project Coordinator for this Foundation Project implemented by India Foundation for the Arts (IFA), under the Archives and Museums programme, in collaboration with MoCA, made possible with support from Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan New Delhi and Parijat Foundation.
In a special showcase conducted offline, Shahi AJ’s film Letters Unwritten to Naiyer Masud was screened at The Park, Bangalore on March 16, 2023. The film is a meditation on the architecture of Lucknow and derives its spatial imaginaries from the works of the Urdu literary figure Naiyer Masud. Shahi and the film’s animator Bharat Murthy discussed their film after the screening. The event was open to all and had Indian Sign Language interpretation.
Shahi AJ received a grant from India Foundation for the Arts (IFA) under the Arts Practice programme, made possible with part-support from Cholamandalam Investment and Finance Company.
Grant and Project Impact Study
The Many Lives of Photography: Two Studies on the Impact of Grants and Projects
implemented by IFA in the Field of Photography (1995-1996 to 2021-2022) | 2023
Visual arts scholars Sabeena Gadihoke and Suryanandini Narain were commissioned to study 38 grants/projects in the field of photography implemented by India Foundation for the Arts (IFA) between 1995-96 and 2021-22. The two reports at the end of their research sought to locate these grants/projects within the larger scope and milieu of photography, and observe their impact on the artists’ journeys.
Click here to read Sabeena Gadihoke's report and here to read Suryanandini Narain's report
Open Calls for Proposals
Are you an artist, scholar, cultural practitioner
hoping to apply to IFA with your project proposal?
Arts Research
Deadline: August 16, 2023
Harshita Bathwal invites proposals from researchers and practitioners interested in researching the various histories and expressions of artistic practices in India.
The Arts Research programme is made possible with support from BNP Paribas India.
Arts Education
Teachers for projects in government schools in Karnataka
Deadline: August 26, 2023
Artists for projects in government schools in Karnataka
Deadline: August 31, 2023
Radhika Bharadwaj invites proposals from artists for projects in government schools in Karnataka.
Government-aided and Non-profit Schools in India
Deadline: October 31, 2023
India Foundation for the Arts (IFA) in collaboration with the Ever-Living Museum in Shillong invites applications for IFA-Ever-Living Museum Creative Project and IFA-Ever-Living Museum Scholarly Project
Deadline: August 31, 2023
Programmes open throughout the year:
Arts Practice: You can apply with project proposals under the Workshops/ Residencies/ Seminars and Arts Platforms categories throughout the year.
The Arts Practice programme is made possible with support from Sony Pictures Entertainment Fund.
Project 560: The Curated Artistic Engagements category accepts proposals throughout the year.
The Project 560 programme is made possible with support from BNP Paribas India.
The IFA Archive Podcast
Tune in to the newly launched - The IFA Archive Podcast! This is where we dive deep into the Archive at IFA and its vast repository of archival material of the outcomes produced from projects implemented by IFA. Artist/scholars Rustom Bharucha and Moushumi Bhowmik speak to us this season! Listen to the first three episodes on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Castbox, Stitcher, and Pocket Casts
The IFA Archive is built with support from Indorama Charitable Trust.
New Projects at IFA
In the previous edition of the newsletter, we shared details of 33 projects we had implemented in the year 2022-23. Since then, we have implemented more projects under the Arts Research, Arts Practice, Arts Education, Project 560, and the Archives and Museums programmes. Read more about them below.
Kiran Dayal (Arts Practice) will engage 25 women from Self-Help Groups from Satwas, Madhya Pradesh, in reclaiming public spaces through exploring leisure with gatherings, potlucks, music and game sessions as a way of building solidarities.
Darshan R Shet (Arts Education) will engage students of Government Higher Primary School in Honnesara, Shivamogga district in the project titled nannuru nanageshtu gottu?! (How much do I know of my city?!) which will explore the regional history of Shivamogga through a series of lecture sessions and field visits by connecting it to their curriculum in social science and languages.
Kiddy Kingdom Academy Samiti (Arts Education) will engage students from the Kiddy Kingdom Academy Samiti, in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, to explore the city they inhabit as a learning environment through its history, heritage, and culture in the project titled Children as Citizens.
Muskaan (Arts Education) will engage students from the denotified tribes Pardhi and Kanjar studying at Jeevan Shiksha Pahal, a school run by Muskaan in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh to document the oral histories, music and specific vocabulary of them through a series of multidisciplinary activities in a project titled DNT Children’s Lens.
Kalkeri Sangeet Vidyalaya (Arts Education) will engage students from the Kalkeri Sangeet Vidyalaya, in Kalkeri village, Dharwad, Karnataka, who study music, to explore the world of the makers of musical instruments of Miraj, and build connections with them.
Karthik S (Archives and Museums) will develop a photo-film to address the intersections of photography, ecology and women by weaving together the archival materials from the collections at the Institut Francais de Pondichery (IFP).
Devarati Chakrabarti (Archives and Museums) will develop a series of essays, curated walks and structured writing workshops drawing from the materials in the Photo Archives at the Institut Francais de Pondichery (IFP) to critically explore Pondicherry as a site of tourism and history.
Sujeet George (Archives and Museums) will explore the Herbarium at the Institut Francais de Pondichery (IFP) as a site of scientific knowledge focusing on processes of knowledge production, archiving practices and the use of the data for research as well as pedagogic and public history purposes to develop an exhibition, a multi-modal book and a symposium.
Komal Jain (Archives and Museums) will develop a physical exhibition and a series of associated programmes on public health messaging of queer-trans community drawing from the resources and materials available at the Queer Archive for Memory, Reflection and Activism (QAMRA) at National Law School of India University, (NLSIU) Bengaluru.
Puja Sen Majumdar (Archives and Museums) will critically examine the archival materials at the Queer Archive for Memory, Reflection and Activism (QAMRA) archival project at National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bengaluru to historicise Section 377 and trace the cultural and socio-political struggle towards decriminalising homosexuality in India.
Beena Aneesh (Archives and Museums) will critically explore the experiences of migration of the queer and trans community from Kerala to Bangalore resulting in a report/monograph on the queer history of Kerala drawing primarily from the materials at the Queer Archive for Memory, Reflection and Activism (QAMRA) at the National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bengaluru.
Apoorva Raghunathan Iyengar (Archives and Museums) will facilitate research towards challenging the traditional museum catalogue to design decks of 52 cards - a kind of ‘pocket museum’ - created as a game that would be a tool for curatorial reimagination of the collection at the regional gallery at the Bihar Museum, Patna.
Anisha Kumari (Archives and Museums) will facilitate research towards documentation and recognition of Sikki and Moonj craft forms as important practices from the state of Bihar, using the existing collection at the regional gallery of the Bihar Museum, Patna as an entry-point.
Shobhana Kumari (Project 560) will create a theatre performance titled Nantu, that will attempt to capture vignettes of Bangalore through the lived experiences of a single woman in the city, and their interactions with the working class and queer communities.
Rumi Harish (Project 560) will create a theatre performance based on a queer person’s experiences of crisis intervention for gender and sexual minority communities, across police stations in Bangalore.
Mohan Kumar N (Arts Research) will explore the oral narratives around a local hero, a Veeragara, Veera Tammanna of the Kadu Golla community in Karnataka, and enquires into discrepancies in documentation and his absence from the historical discourse of the region.
Suryanandini Narain (Arts Research) will examine female agency in the visual production of everyday domestic objects in middle-class, urban India through the key figure of the middle-class ‘housewife’ or ‘homemaker’.
S Jayakrishnan (Arts Research) will create a multimedia installation using the forgotten subaltern literary and music genre Gujili Paatu of Madras from the early 20th Century, and classical Sangam literature.
Basil Islam SPC (Arts Research) will study the Muslim community’s spatial formations and sensorial practices examine how various traditions negotiate the influx of modernity in different socio-religious contexts in Kayalpattinam, a southern coastal town in Tamil Nadu.
V Jayashree (Arts Research) will examine the role of illustrations in Tamil magazines in the second half of the 20th century and seek to understand how the ascription of supplementary nature of illustrations to fictional narratives was understood and negotiated in the public sphere.
Shruti Ghosh (Arts Research) will investigate the cultural memory of exile and identity formation in Chhota Lucknow, situated in Metiaburuz, Kolkata.
Stuti Bhavsar (Arts Research) aims to offer a revisionist reading of the pocket-sized Hanuman Book series printed out of Madras (present-day Chennai) and published in New York between 1986 and 1993 by the artist Francesco Clemente and writer Raymond Foye, reflecting upon and critiquing their heavy employment of Indian craft traditions and processes while altogether keeping these books out of circulation in the region.
Haneena PA (Arts Research) will examine the significance and impact of printed Arabi-Malayalam magazines run by women publishers and editors from the Mappila community in Kerala in the early 20th century.
Yamini Chintamani Krishna (Arts Research) will explore the question of modernity and citizenship in cinema in the erstwhile princely states of Hyderabad, Kolhapur, Jaipur, and Indore.
Lokesh Ghai (Arts Research) will study the unexplored history of shoemaking in Dehradun Valley to understand what the craft and making of essential objects tell us about the history of a place and people.
Hina Saiyada (Arts Research) will explore the life and work of feminist thinker, writer, educator and political activist, Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain (1880-1932), who lived across Kolkata and Patna, through the lens of virtual games to prompt conversations and contemporary interpretations.
Aratrika Das (Arts Research) will explore two stories that run in opposing directions – the one of ascension of Siliguri with its progress as a town; and the other of loss, cultural disruption and continued deprivation of the river Teesta.
Lalrinawmi Colvom Lulam (Arts Research) will explore the role that the music programmes of the All India Radio Aizawl played in the lives of ordinary people in Mizoram, amid the depressing reality of insurgency and state repression.
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