Grants & Projects

Vikram Iyengar


Project Period: Six months

For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA under Workshops, Residencies, Seminars, which will create four residential workshops for movement artists from East and North East India to inspire critical thinking while nurturing choreographic practices. Four artists from diverse backgrounds will restage their earlier pieces as they work with the participants of the workshop as facilitators. The outcomes of the project are four intensive residencies and workshops for dance and movement artists, culminating in formal public presentations, along with analytical documentation of the process, and a blog. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA with the final report will be photographs, audio-visual documentation of the residencies and workshops, process documents, and the link to the blog along with an offline version of the blog. Project funds will pay for contract fees, travel and living, and production. 

Mamta G Sagar


Project Period: One year

For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA under Curated Artistic Engagements, will create a series of poetry events – primarily in Kannada, and a few other languages - as public and private interactive sessions, in different parts of Bangalore to explore the psychogeography of the city through multilingual poetic exercises. The outcomes of the project are public and private interactive poetry sessions, an exhibition of poetry installations, poetry videos and poetry performances, a book of poems, and a digital book of photographs of the project. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA with the final report will be audio-visual documentation of the project, a digital book of photographs of the project and a soft copy of the book of poems. Project funds will pay for contract fees, travel and living, hire of equipment, hire of venue, food, printing, and materials.

Gangappa S Lamani


Project Period: One year

For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA that will engage 25 students from the fourth fifth and sixth grades of the Government Higher Primary School, in Alkeri Gauliwada, Uttara Kannada district in exploring a local community dance form Radmal that is rapidly vanishing from these regions and the cultural life of the Gauli community. This is a collaborative project with the community that will craft a series of workshops that enable students to use the material from their Kannada, Social Science, History and Math syllabi in exploring the dance form. The outcome of the project will be a series of performances.  The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA with the final report will be photographs and video documentation of the project. Project funds will pay for stationery and materials, workshop, performance, travel and contract fees.

Geetha KH


Project Period: One year

For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA that will engage fifth and sixth grade students of the Government Lower Primary School, in Yelagudige, Chikkamagaluru district in a project titled Beejadinda Battalige (From seed to Coffee Mug). The students will explore the journey of coffee from seed to the beverage across its various stages of production through a set of multidisciplinary activities, connecting their curriculum of science, language and social science.  The outcomes of the project will be a series of performances, an exhibition and a publication. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA with the final report will be the publication and photographs and video documentation of the entire project including the performance and exhibition. Project funds will pay for printing, exhibition and performance, travel, workshop, contract fees and documentation.

Suryakanth Nandur


Project Period: One year

For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA that will engage eighth grade students of the Government High School, in Pethsirur, Kalaburagi district, in making an illustrated book titled Chitra Samputa (A Picture Book) in the Surapura style of painting. The project aims to develop imaginative and artistic skills among students through the exploration of drawings and its applications to their language and social science curriculum. The outcomes of the project will be an exhibition and a publication. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA with the final report will be the publication and photographs and video documentation of the entire project including the exhibition. Project funds will pay for workshop, travel, exhibition, publication, stationery and materials, contract fees, and documentation.

Aravind K


Project Period: One year two months

For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA that will engage sixth and seventh grade students of the Government Higher Primary School, in Moodambail village in Dakshina Kannada district in a project titled Chiv Chiv Hakkiyuu mattu Haaruva Chitteyu (Hums of Birds and Flying Butterflies). They will learn and document the names of birds, reptiles, and plants in their local dialect in an attempt to bridge their curriculum of science, language and social science. The outcomes of the project will be an illustrated dictionary, a series of performances, an exhibition and a publication. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA with the final report will be the dictionary, the publication and photographs and video documentation of the entire project including the performance and exhibition. Project funds will pay for workshop, travel, performance, contract fees, publication and stationery.

Balla RV


Project Period: One year

For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA that will engage eighth grade students at the Government Girls Pre-University College, High School Section, in Guledgudda, Bagalkot district in a project titled Maggada Maatu (Voices of the Loom). It will document the process of making and issues related to Ilkal sarees from the region, by connecting them to their curriculum in language and science. Through this project students will become community researchers recording the legacy of their local handloom industry. The outcomes of the project will be an exhibition and a publication. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA with the final report will be the publication, and photographs and video documentation of the entire project including the exhibition. Project funds will pay for printing, workshop, stationery and materials, travel, contract fees, exhibition and documentation.

Subhaschandra Bhajantri


Project Period: One year

For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA that will engage eighth grade students at the Government Girls Pre-University College, High School Section in Badami, Bagalkot district in a project titled Kappe Arabhatta Yaaru? (Who is Kappe Arabhatta?). The project will document and critically examine stone inscriptions in and around the region with a special focus on Kappe Arabhatta, an 8th century Chalukya warrior mentioned in the inscriptions. Through this project students will become researchers recording their local history and enrich their study of social science, and Kannada language curriculum. The outcomes of the project will be a performance and a publication. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA with the final report will be the publication and photographs and video documentation of the entire project including the performance. Project funds will pay for printing, workshop, travel performance, contract fees, stationery and documentation.

Priyanka Chhabra


Project Period: One year

For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA under Productions, which will create an artist book that will reflect on the nature and relationship of personal archives to history. Titled My Voice Is As Brittle As The Paper You Write On, the book is imagined as a conversation between four imagined characters at the time of the Partition of Punjab in 1947. As an extension of the film Iqraar-naama, through documents from personal archives, drawings, text and photographs, the book will capture reflections, inflections, propositions and deliberations rethinking questions around how history is written and read. The outcomes from this project will be the artist book and an essay on the relationship of personal archives to history writing and making. The Project Coordinator's deliverables to IFA along with the final report will be the artist book, the essay, copies of drawings, text and photographs used in the book.  Project funds will pay for contract fees, printing and scanning, travel and living and archives fees.

Samyuktha Pritham Chakravarthy


Project Period: One year and six months

For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA under Productions, which will create a theatrical production titled The Mobile Girls Koottam. Set in a tea-shop built on a small truck, the performance will travel to various locations within Tamil Nadu and to Bangalore and Pondicherry facilitating conversation among actors and audiences around women's lives, their work, bodies and identities. There will be eight shows of the performance as part of this project. The outcomes from this project will be the performances, a travelogue booklet with sketches, photographs, and notes on experiences from the tour drawn from writings by the performers, crew and audience members, and audio-visual documentation of the tour that will be presented as episode/s on Youtube. The Project Coordinator's deliverables to IFA along with the final report will be the booklet, still and video documentation of the performances and the tour, and links to Youtube. Project funds will pay for contract fees, equipment hire, printing and publicity, materials, travel, food and props and costumes.

Amrita Barua


Project Period: One year and eight months

For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA under Productions, which will create a work of speculative fantasy eco-fiction centred around the ecology of the tidal sluice networks in Goa. Based on ongoing research into the estuarine geography, its history and architecture, the project will explore stories, materiality of the spaces, repair processes involved, tools and architecture of the sluices through intermedia works including drawing, writing, audio-visual materials, found objects and maps. It will also create the abstract characters Ngan and Nilnil representing the river and ocean respectively, and explore their journeys. The outcomes from this project will be an artist book, a journal documenting the course of the project, and a website consisting of textual and audio-visual essays and a series of drawings. The Project Coordinator's deliverables to IFA along with the final report will be the artist book, a copy of the journal, the essays and drawings, and a download of the website. Project funds will pay for contract fees, printing and publicity, equipment hire, travel and living, materials, props and costumes, purchase of books and subscriptions, and website hosting. 

Dhiraj Rabha


Project Period: One year and eight months

For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA under Productions, which will artistically investigate into the notions of home, displacement and identity of a people and a place as seen in the collective memory of the inhabitants of a camp set for surrendered members of the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) in Assam Through engagements with memories, narratives, and everyday objects of community members, and resources from archives, the project intends to create a space for conversation that will facilitate a deeper understanding of narratives and positions within and outside the community. The outcome of this project will be a site-specific installation. The Project Coordinator's deliverables to IFA with the final report will be audio-visual documentation of the entire process and of the installation. Project funds will pay for contract fees, travel and living, materials, equipment hire, and printing and publicity.   

Poonam Gautam Jain


Project Period: One year and ten months

For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA under Productions, which will explore the politics of hierarchies and erasures of languages through a study of five scripts namely Mahajani, Modi lipi, Tamil numerals, Devanagari and Kannada. Titled Degrees of Exclusion of Languages, this project will attempt to understand linguistic divide as a core dimension of the national education enterprise and a crucial axis of negotiation within our public domain and democracy. It will explore cultural dilemmas and strategies of survival that languages have struggled with. The outcomes from this project will be a set of three-dimensional physical and digital letterpress moveable types for all the five scripts, letterpress prints, lithographs on paper, and a booklet that catalogues all the letters in these scripts in the form that they have existed so far. The Project Coordinator's deliverables to IFA along with the final report will be the digital models, a set of physical letterpress types, copies of the lithographs, copies of the letterpress prints and the catalogue will be the deliverables from this project to IFA.  Project funds will pay for materials, contract fees, studio hire, travel and living. 

Deepa Dhanraj


Project Period: One year and six months

For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA under Productions, which will explore the outbursts of artistic responses to the unfortunate death of Rohith Vemula, the circumstances that led to his death, and his suicide note. Anchored around this historic moment and its political and cultural ramifications with respect to the anti-caste movement in India, this project intends to enable conversations with select filmmakers, writers, poets and musicians who engaged deeply with Rohith’s letter. The outcome of this project will be a 60-minute film tentatively titled Speaking to Rohith.  The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA with the final report will be the film. Project funds will pay for travel and living, contract fees, equipment hire and studio hire.

This Grant was amicably cancelled based on reasons mutually agreed upon by the Grantee and IFA due to unavoidable circumstances.

Srilata Krishnan


Project Period: One year and three months

For the implementation of a Foundation Project by IFA under Productions that will lead to the creation of sixty poems based on the interior lives of key women characters from the epic Mahabharata. Structured as quasi-dramatic monologues, nesting within the narrative frame of prose passages, this body of imaginative poetic literature seeks to probe into the many dimensions of these characters that have largely remained invisible and unexamined within extant interpretations. In doing so, the work will creatively dialogue with existing tellings and retellings of the Mahabharata. The outcome of this project will be a manuscript containing the narrative prose and the sixty poems. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA with the final report will be this manuscript. Project funds will pay for travel and living, contract fees, communication, printing and stationery, and purchase of books.

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