The Arts Practice programme supports critical practice in the arts. It encourages practitioners working across artistic disciplines to question and critique existing norms through their practice. The programme seeks to foreground a culture where arts practice is constantly being shaped and articulated through experimentation and critical dialogue.

In this video, Senior Programme Officers Sumana Chandrashekar and Shubham Roy Choudhury
talk about the Arts Practice programme and how you can apply:
Proposals are invited from practitioners, for projects that could:

  • Challenge prevalent idioms and conventions of practice
  • Counter market norms and standardisations
  • Push new frontiers in terms of content, form and medium
  • Explore new modes of engagement with audiences

The programme is open to multiple readings of the ‘critical’ and encourages practitioners to articulate this in their own context.

Proposals will be accepted under the following grant categories:

  • For projects that lead to a performative, aural, visual, or, literary work : up to INR 5,00,000
  • In case these projects need to be preceded by a separate period of research or exploratory work : up to INR 2,00,000
  • For conceptualising and organising public platforms like conferences and seminars that facilitate critical dialogue, debate, sharing and discussion among diverse stakeholders of arts practice : up to INR6,00,000
  • For innovatively-modelled artist residencies and workshops that nurture artists, encourage collaborations and facilitate experimentations : up to INR 6,00,000

Grants may be available for dissemination of work that has been created with IFA support. These dissemination projects can be developed through interactions with the programme officer. Grant amount will be decided on a case-by-case basis.

Who can apply? 
The programme invites proposals both from practitioners working within, as well as, across disciplines: 

  • Performing and performance artists working in the areas of music, sound, text, dance, movement, theatre, puppetry, storytelling, magic, circus and other forms
  • Visual artists working across all forms including painting, sculpture, installation, photography, film, graphic art, and new media
  • Poets, novelists, playwrights working in the literary arts
  • Curators and all practitioners engaged in interdisciplinary work and / or working outside conventional spaces or contexts

How can you apply? 
Proposals can be sent at any time of the year.

To apply, please send us a short note describing

  • Your existing arts practice, concerns and interests as a practitioner
  • The nature of the proposed project and why you wish to work on it
  • How the proposed project addresses the programme

Draft proposals in audio/video format are welcome too. Applicants can also visit the IFA office to share their project ideas with the team. For this, please arrange a meeting with the programme officer in advance.

This programme does not follow an annual schedule, and welcomes applications through the year.

With a view to contribute to discourse in language contexts, IFA specifically encourages proposals in Indian languages other than English.

To read the call in other Indian languages, click here

If your proposal falls within the ambit of the programme, the process of developing and evaluating proposals might take up to three months. Please bear this in mind when you apply to us. You can expect to hear from us within two weeks of receipt of your draft proposal.

Eligibility 
You are eligible to apply if you are an Indian national, a registered non-profit Indian organisation, or have been residing in India for the last five years. Your collaborators, if any, should also fall into one of the previously mentioned categories.
(For more on our eligibility criteria please click here)

For any questions or enquiries, please write to
Sumana Chandrashekar, Senior Programme Officer at sumana@indiaifa.org or
Shubham Roy Choudhury, Senior Programme Officer at shubham@indiaifa.org

You can also write to:
Senior Programme Officer, Arts Practice 
India Foundation for the Arts,
‘Apurva’ Ground Floor, No 259, 4th Cross,
Raj Mahal Vilas 2nd Stage, 2nd Block,
Bangalore-560 094.
Phone: 080-2341 4681 / 82

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