India Foundation for the Arts (IFA) is an independent, nationwide, not-for-profit organisation that makes grants and implements projects across research, practice and education in the arts and culture across India, since 1995. We have supported over 750 projects disbursing over Rs 26.65 crore (USD 3.54 million) across the country. The outcomes of these projects—as books, films, performances, exhibitions, games, websites, and archival materials—have been circulating in the public domain through showcases, presentations, seminars, screenings, lecture demonstrations, and festivals, helping widen access and encouraging broader participation in the arts.
About the Proposal
The Arts Practice programme seeks to implement projects where artists expand their present range of practices in new directions. These could question accepted conventions, push new frontiers in content, form and medium, explore new modes of engagement with space, audience and communities, foregrounding a spirit of experimentation.
Explorations:
While practicing the arts, we might sometimes stumble upon an idea or feel an urge to venture into a direction that is fresh and exciting. However, given the context and location of our practice, these ideas may be unfamiliar and thus the foray into them seem tentative and uncertain. We may at the time know nothing about where it will lead us or what it might mean for our present practice. And yet we feel the draw, understand its import and the necessity of following through. A little support at these times may be of help.
Under the Arts Practice programme, we invite proposals for such Explorations that seek to probe, test and play around with ideas nascent, risky or unprecedented. These may or may not lead into the making of an artwork later on. This could include researching, script-writing, location scouting, animatics, jamming, storyboarding, rehearsing, sampling, robotics, lab explorations and other forms of exploratory work that are used to examine ideas.
Duration of the project: Up to 6 months
Budget: Up to a maximum of Rs 75,000/-
Eligibility
You are eligible to send project proposals if you are an Indian national.
The programme invites proposals from practitioners working within as well as across disciplines. These could include:
Performing artists working in music, sound, text, dance, movement, theatre, puppetry, storytelling, magic, circus and other performance arts
Visual artists working across all forms including film (documentary and fiction), animation, photography, installation, new media, Artificial Intelligence, robotics, interactive arts, gaming, painting, sculpture, printmaking, comic book, graphic narrative, artist book and other visual arts
Curators, especially those working outside of the gallery context
Poets, novelists, playwrights working with literary arts
Practitioners engaged in interdisciplinary work
How to Apply
Send us your application with the following:
Your existing arts practice, concerns and interests as a practitioner
Details of the Exploration you want to pursue and the reason why
Detailed timeline and budget
Examples of earlier work
Your CV with address, phone number and email ID
You can write your proposal in any Indian language, including English.
Please note that we only accept applications via email. IFA encourages projects in Indian languages other than English. You can send us your queries and draft ideas in written, audio or video formats for response from IFA staff till August 25, 2022.
Send your final application in a single email not more than 25 MB to John Xaviers, Programme Officer, Arts Practice at john@indiaifa.org with the Subject Line: Project Proposal for Explorations (Arts Practice) on or before Friday, September 09, 2022.
