ifa report 2005-06 - India Foundation for the Arts audiences and buyers, they also need inter- ventions that ensure they are not ‘commodified’ in their journey to the marketplace

1

INTRODUCTION

A recent survey by PricewaterhouseCoopersPvt Ltd indicates that between 2005 and 2010the global entertainment and media industry willsee an annual growth rate of 6.6% and a rise invalue from the current US$1.3 trillion to US$1.8trillion. Interestingly, the survey suggests that theentertainment and media industry in the Asia-Pacific region is expected to have the highestgrowth rate of any region in the world. Thisindustry includes forms like filmed entertain-ment, television networks, recorded music, inter-net advertising, and magazine, book and newspa-per publishing.

Even though a great deal of what is cate-gorised as ‘the arts’––live performance and visualart to take two examples––is not included in thissector, it is likely that these developments willeventually impact the entire universe of the arts.The growth of the Internet or sectors like televi-sion and book publishing, for instance, createsopportunities for increased dissemination of thearts. A proliferation of such channels also meansthat there is scope for diversification in the kindof work and ideas that are transmitted throughthese media.

India Foundation for the Arts (IFA) is alive tothe possibilities that such an expansion holds.The funding category ‘Special Grants’––whichwe introduced last year––is especially focused onprojects concerned with strengthening arts infra-structure, business development in arts organisa-tions, and issues of livelihood and sustenance.

Our Special Grants recognise that eventhough markets for the arts might be expanding,these markets need to be tapped through careful-ly thought-out projects. While the arts naturallyneed audiences and buyers, they also need inter-

ventions that ensure they are not ‘commodified’in their journey to the marketplace. As revealedby some of the grants we have made, the effectivemarketing of the arts depends on a very closeengagement with them.

It is clear, however, that the arts also requiresupport that balances the market’s insensitivity totheir singularity and their intrinsic relationship tothe contexts in which they are created. This con-sideration continues to underlie our grant making,which has in recent times gone beyond supportingindividual projects to funding ventures that, vari-ously, strengthen infrastructure, create resourcesand forge long-term collaborations.

While making grants for projects submittedunder our various programmes continues to formthe bulk of our work, we have also begun todesign our own projects and identify those whomight best execute or benefit from them. Twosuch self-managed projects have been underwayin the past year. One, partially supported by theJapan Foundation, has facilitated collaborationsbetween groups in Southeast Asia and India thathave been enriching arts pedagogy in differentways. The second is concerned to track and pub-lish critical writing––in Bengali, Malayalam,Gujarati and Marathi––on the visual arts in thefirst half of the twentieth century.

Alongside supporting arts practice and schol-arship that is fresh and relevant, we plan increas-ingly to provide for the creation of infrastructure,resources and expertise that will go a long way instrengthening the field and consolidating our roleas the country’s leading independent funder ofthe arts.

Anmol VellaniExecutive Director

November 2006

Centre for Environmental Research and Education: art from waste pro-duced by school students in Mumbai. See also pages 14-15.

EXTENDING ARTS PRACTICE

Groundbreaking achievements in the artsoften occur unexpectedly. Amrita Sher-Gil’spaintings, Salman Rushdie’s novels or UdayShankar’s vision of modern dance, were not bornin a vacuum but neither were they the result ofconscious nurturing on anyone’s part. So while itis difficult to anticipate radical ideas in the arts, itis entirely possible to encourage the developmentof a milieu that is hospitable to such ideas.

This is the intention behind our ExtendingArts Practice programme. It was launched in July2005 to support the innovative, the untried andthe fresh in the practice of the arts. At the sametime, we do not want to make a fetish of the new:artists may be searching for another direction fortheir art even if they are not seeking to produceself-professedly experimental work. In a culturethat is not generally encouraging of the explorato-ry and the open-ended, our primary aim is to giveartists the confidence to try out new ideas and lookfor fresh ways in which to express themselves.

The four grants we have made so far allinvolve a kind of creative re-ordering of theprevalent terms of practice in different fields.Equally the artists we have supported wish toconnect their practice with specific cultural his-tories or with aspects of contemporary society.

The variety evident even in this small list pointsto the range of viewpoints and approaches thatthis programme can accommodate.

At one end of this spectrum, we have amedia artist like Ashok Sukumaran whose art-works challenge our unquestioning use of tech-nology in a culture of passive consumption,while also extending the field of media art itself.At the other end is the filmmaker KamalSwaroop, who too is extending our understand-ing of filmmaking by engaging with students offilm and related disciplines. In this way he ishighlighting issues not just relevant to filmmak-ing (and its forgotten connection with liter-ature, photography and painting), but also toarts education.

In time we intend to organise meetings andseminars on themes relevant to the programme––like interdisciplinarity in the arts or the valueof artistic innovation. These would have thetwin functions of alerting us to interesting workbeing done in the arts, while helping to stimu-late discussion on approaches to arts practicethat we feel ought to have greater currency.

GRANTS

Kamal Swaroop, Mumbai

Rs 2,27,500 over three months

Towards identifying partner institutions,developing course books and film study cap-sules, and fixing a time schedule for a series ofworkshops to be conducted for students of film,design and creative writing. The eventual work-shops will lead to the creation of a story-boardon the life of the pioneering filmmaker,Dadasaheb Phalke. By bringing together stu-dents of these various disciplines, the workshopswill explore ‘the industrial mode of production’in cinema––something which Phalke exempli-fied and which the current specialisation in thearts no longer allows for.

Bodhaditya Bandopadhyay, Kolkata3

From Kamal Swaroop’s manuscript, The Life and Times ofDadasaheb Phalke. See also pages 5 and 20-24.

Bodhaditya Bandopadhyay, Kolkata

Rs 5,00,000 over eighteen months

For the making of a non-fiction film based onthe Bengali text Hutom Pyanchar Naksa. The filmwill use the text––which documents the excesses,decadence and cultural richness of nineteenth-century Bengali bhadralok––as an entry point toexplore the silences in the narratives of colonialismand modernity. Envisaged as a dialogue betweenthe past and the present, the film will involveextensive documentation and interpretation ofpublic life in contemporary Kolkata and of varioussubaltern art forms, revisiting places and practicesmentioned in the text.

Taran Khan, Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh

Rs 4,00,000 over two years

For a writer and a filmmaker to make a docu-mentary film on the significance of Sufism in thelives of mofussil communities in the Awadh regionof Uttar Pradesh. The grandfather and grand-daughter pair will begin by looking at the chang-ing perceptions of Sufism within their own familyand then branch out to explore the intersection ofreligious belief, cultural practice and social moresin the Awadh region.

Ashok Sukumaran, Mumbai


For the creation of a series of public installa-tions based on proto-typical electronic arrange-ments. The intention behind these pieces is todraw attention to the pervasively ‘wired’ nature ofour environment. At the same time, by workingwith simple, almost everyday arrangements andexhibiting outcomes in public places, the projectwill also critique ‘hi-tech’ media art that operatesexclusively in galleries or laboratory-like spaces.Documentation of the installations will be madeavailable through an online archive.

4

‘Phalke believed that the

image is not invented but

is already pre-existent in

the minds of the audi-

ence. So in order to

locate the image you have

to either find the audi-

ence or create them. In

the end, no matter what,

the audience is the author

and the producer them-

selves, not individually

but collectively.’Filmmaker Kamal Swaroop on

Dadasaheb Phalke.

NEW PERFORMANCE

Rarely are the performing arts in India daringin form and content, ready to portray multilingualrealities, prepared to undertake genre-defying exper-iments or willing to extend beyond middle class sen-sibilities and preoccupations. The compulsions ofstate patronage, the market fixation of corporatesponsorship and the constitution of the festival cir-cuit collude in keeping performance within strictdisciplinary and monolingual boundaries.

It was in this context that IFA’s NewPerformance programme was introduced during theyear. It provides artists with opportunities to explorenew modes of making and presenting performance,to reach beyond their own specialisation to createnew performance styles or forms, or to generate con-tent that introduces spectators to new perspectivesand realities. In brief, this programme’s interest liesnot in entertainment forms but in work that chal-lenges those who create it and those who witness it.

Three grants have been made so far. One hassupported dancer Jhuma Basak to consolidateVersedance, an unusual experiment to reintegrate lit-erature, theatre, music and dance. The grant enabledJhuma to develop three short pieces of Versedance.She also guided students from the literature depart-ments of two universities in Kolkata to use this novelperformance form to illuminate and negotiate pre-scribed texts in a manner that formal classroomteaching cannot do. The enthusiasm with which thisintervention was received by both students and fac-ulty suggests that Versedance has a promising futurein educational contexts.

Pondicherry-based theatre group Adishaktireceived a grant to create a production which alsostrives to cross genres in combining theatre and shad-ow puppetry, and draws on contrasting material fromdifferent cultures to contemplate the philosophicaland cultural significance of racing and competing.

Finally, Sunil Shanbag’s theatre productionCotton 56, Polyester 84, on the history and culture ofMumbai’s mill workers, was developed with our sup-port and premiered in February 2006. The perform-ance has been very well received by audiences and crit-ics alike. Reviews celebrated the play’s authentic por-trayal of chawl life, calling it “a gritty true-to-life saga”.

GRANTS

Jhuma Basak, Bangalore

Rs 5,36,700 over five months

For the further development of a new perform-ance form called Versedance. Three short pieces ofdance-theatre, based on poems by Rainer MariaRilke, Amrita Pritam Singh and Jibonananda Das,will be created and performed in Kolkata. The edu-cational possibilities of Versedance will also beexplored with students at two universities in the city.

Adishakti Laboratory for Theatre Art Research, Pondicherry

Rs 6,40,000 over six months

For the creation of a production on The Hareand Tortoise, which will combine theatre and shadowpuppetry. Through constant improvisations andexperiments with the puppets, a script––which looksat famous races and a few imagined ones, with char-acters from Indian epics as also from other cul-tures––will be further developed and layered.Members of the theatre group will also train underresource persons from various traditional forms todevelop the content of the production.

Sunil Shanbag, Mumbai

Rs 4,36,000 over four months

For the creation of a theatre production that willbring to light the suppressed history, subculture andmarginalised lives of the mill workers of Mumbai,who lost their jobs en masse as a result of the textilestrike in the 1980s. The mill workers once exerciseda very strong influence on Mumbai’s culture, buttheir plight has largely been ignored in the ragingpublic debate and legal battles over the future devel-opment of the mill lands. The production will beshown to mainstream audiences as well as workingclass communities in the mill lands area and else-where.

‘Clearly what Cotton 56, Polyester

84 appears to be offering is an

alternative city narrative, voicing a

seldom-heard perspective of the his-

tory of a people that have left an

indelible imprint on the labour

movement of India, and of a space

whose cultural dynamics has been

instrumental in shaping our notion

of Mumbai as a cosmopolitan city.’Scherazade Kaikobad in The Times of India(February 11, 2006).

Photograph by Kartikeya Shiva.

8

ARTS RESEARCH ANDDOCUMENTATION

For the first time, IFA made as many as four grantsthat support research towards novels on subjects such asthe urbanisation of a refugee colony in post-partitionKolkata, the cultural history of the town of Tiruchenkodein Tamil Nadu, and the rise and fall of Carnatic music asa dynamic social form. While research towards fictionalwork has always been within the scope of this pro-gramme, it is only these recent projects that have beenable to combine an excitement about fiction writing withthe urge to address serious research questions.

Meanwhile, filmmaking on the arts continued toattract a substantial number of grants. The five films wehave supported this year cover subjects like family photo-albums, the sacred Buddhist dance theatre of Chham inSikkim, and the lifestyles and dramatic practices of a 120-year old travelling theatre company from Andhra Pradesh.

Support was also extended to projects that are sig-nificant as basic documentation but are also expectedto further research and practice. One grant for updat-ing and digitising an existing database on performancespaces in Karnataka will facilitate tours by theatregroups, while another grant for photographing andannotating an important collection of 5,500 Indianminiature paintings in a museum is expected triggernew art historical research.

In the last decade, the programme has supportedover 90 projects. This represents a rich and varied corpusof work and IFA remains committed to funding researchand documentation in substantial and enlightened ways.However, arts practice and research have changed con-siderably in the last ten years and we feel that the timeis right for a review of the programme. The review willrevisit the programme’s history, assess its impact andenvisage its future.

This programme was started in 1995 in response toa perceived lack of support for serious arts scholarship,documentation and archival initiatives. Given the dearthof institutional spaces for research and documentation inthe arts, one of the key decisions in the early years was tosupport individuals––not just scholars but also arts prac-titioners––so as to trigger critical reflection in relation toarts practice, while allowing for the insertion of the per-

sonal and the subjective in the domain of research. Inaddition, we have funded documentation that hasaddressed livelihood issues, triggered advocacy andaction in the field of heritage conservation, and createdinvaluable reference points for scholarship.

One of the key questions to be addressed by thereview, therefore, would be whether we should continueto remain open to various kinds of research or sharpenour focus for greater impact. The review will also deter-mine whether our current emphasis on supporting indi-viduals should be retained or sacrificed in favour of ener-gising institutional spaces for arts research. If we contin-ue to place value on the individual researcher, however, itwould be important to envisage ways of connecting andconsolidating these discrete endeavours to create avibrant environment for enquiry and reflection.

GRANTS

Nivedita Rao, Mumbai

Rs 3,01,500 over three years

For research into the Bharuds––allegorical versesfrom the middle of the fifteenth century attributed toSant Eknath. Compiled by the followers of the Bhaktisaint, Bharuds exist in Maharashtra as written texts, apartfrom being recited as poems, sung as bhajans and kirtans,and dramatised during the pilgrimage of vari and otherreligious occasions. Combining ethnographic study ofthe vari with the social histories of the performers, theresearch will engage with the making of this marginalisedcultural tradition and examine the differences between itsoral, written and performative forms.

Perumal Murugan, Namakkal, Tamil Nadu


For research towards the writing of a novelised histo-ry of Tiruchenkode in Namakkal district, Tamil Nadu. Atown with an ancient history, Tiruchenkode is todaymarked by its hill temple dedicated to Murugan and

Ardhanareeswara but is also known for its vibrantmodern industry. In the course of writing a histor-ical account of Tiruchenkode, the author will doc-ument references to the town in literature, folkloreand mythology, analyse the town’s design andstudy its ritual and religious life.

Arghya Basu, Kolkata


For the making of a film exploring the cul-tural history of Tibetan Buddhism in Sikkimthrough the sacred dance theatre of Chham. Thefilm will examine this ritual dance as it shapesand is shaped by its religious and cultural con-texts. It will also track the mutations in its tradi-tional meanings resulting from modernity andeducation. Titled The Listener’s Tale, the filmseeks to be a witness to the contradictions andcounter-forces that sustain this ancient art prac-tice, the plurality of meanings it generates, andthe active dialogue between the consciousness ofthe performers of Chham and its spectators.

Poomani, Kovilpatti, Tamil NaduRs 4,18,000 over two years

For preparatory research towards a novelabout the caste wars waged by the Nadar com-munity in Tirunelveli and Madurai districts inTamil Nadu during the nineteenth and twenti-eth centuries. Based on an examination ofarchived police, court and other documents ofthe colonial administration, the novel will trans-form factual history into an emotionally ‘true’portrait of those turbulent times in the life of theNadar community, which in turn fed into thelarger Indian struggle for independence.

Urmila Bhirdikar, Pune, Maharashtra

Rs 4,25,800 over eighteen months

For research into the history of Marathi Farcein the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.The project will take into account the social critiqueimplicit in this form of theatre as well as studyfemale impersonation, which was a characteristicof all Marathi theatre of this period. The researchwill lead to the writing of a monograph, transla-tions of two Farces, and the creation of an archiveof documents on the subject.

Photograph by Arghya Basu of Kanchen Dzonga as a warriordeity, Pangtoed Chham, Pang Lhabsol.

Vivek Narayanan, New Delhi


For research towards a novel on the rise and fallof Carnatic music as a dynamic social form fromthe 1920s to the 1960s. The researcher will consultarchival material on the lives of Carnatic musiciansand the technical innovations made within themusic during this period; interview performers andcritics associated with this phase of the music; andconsult scholars working on Carnatic music. Theproject will also lead to English translations ofselected memoirs written by Carnatic musicians,which will be useful for the novel but can also bemore widely disseminated.

Centre for Studies in Social Sciences Calcutta,Kolkata

Principal Investigator: Manas Ray


For research towards two novels––in Bengali andEnglish––on the journey of a refugee colony tourbanity in post-partition Calcutta. Envisaged as aborder-crossing genre, the proposed novels willexplore the interface between ethnography, history,memoir and fiction. Dwelling on the texture of theordinary and familial history to construct an archive

of pain, anguish and hope, the novels are expected tochallenge nostalgic accounts of the afterlife of theBengal partition.

Saba Dewan, New Delhi

Rs 4,99,000 over one year

For post-production work on a film titled InSearch of Umrao, exploring the social and cultural his-tory of the tawaifs of north India. The film focuses onthe art forms associated with the tawaifs and the rela-tionship between aesthetic expression and sexualidentity. Through the story of a lost thumri sung byRasoolan Bai, whose career as a performer overlappedwith significant transitions in both the practice ofmusic and public female sexualities, the film willexamine the major shifts in the tradition’s history.

Sri Nilakanteshwara Natya Seva Sangha,Heggodu, Karnataka


For updating and digitising a database on per-formance spaces in Karnataka. The updated data-base will contain information on the location ofeach space, the nature of its stage and auditorium, itsseating capacity, rental details, spatial dimensions,the types of other spaces attached to it, and theequipment available. The database will be availableto theatre groups, students of theatre and researchscholars on a CD and will eventually be uploadedonto a website.

K M Madhusudhanan, New Delhi


For the making of a film on Surabhi, a 120-year old travelling theatre company from AndhraPradesh. Envisaged as a journey with the repertorycompany, the film, titled Mayabazar, will examinethe everyday activities of these travelling actors andtheir families, rehearsals, exercises, the staging ofthe plays based on the epics and the puranas, theaudience, sets, make-up and costume design. Thefilm will also explore the traces of Parsi theatre,silent cinema from the Phalke era and the paintingsof Raja Ravi Varma in the design of the theatrecompany’s sets and costumes. 11

‘Lav and Kush grew up and donned the

young form of Ram and Lakshman. The

very same actors became older still and

appeared on stage as Bhishma and

Dronacharya, stroking their white

beards. As time, the biggest theatre per-

son, drew the curtains, these actors

became mere memories . . . the one

thing that did not change was the plays

they performed.’

Filmmaker K M Madhusudhanan on Surabhi, a120-year old theatre company from Andhra Pradesh

and the subject of his film.

From the play Mayabazar, performed by Surabhi. Photograph by K M Madhusudhanan.

Amitabh Chakraborthy, Kolkata


For the production of Bishar Blues, a film onthe fakirs of Bengal, examining their music andtheir deeply spiritual everyday life as a living prac-tice of radical syncretism. Bishar, the deviantbranch of Islam practised largely by the lowercastes, does not sacralise the Shariat, and its histo-ry in Bengal is replete with the assimilation ofBuddhist, Tantric and Vaishnavite traditions andpractices. In a context where Islam is increasinglyunder attack from different quarters, the filmseeks to open up a crucial debate on secularism.

Sandesh Bhandare, Pune, MaharashtraRs 4,80,000 over two months

For the editing, designing and printing ofTamasha: Ek Rangadi Gamat, a book in Marathion the Tamasha folk theatre form. The book––one of the outcomes of an IFA-supporteddocumentation project––will contain about 250photographs, and the accompanying text willdescribe the different forms of Tamasha preva-lent in Maharashtra as well as the lifestyles of itsperformers.

Lalbhai Dalpatbhai Institute ofIndology, AhmedabadRs 4,31,000 over sixteen months

For digital photography and annotation ofsome 5,500 miniature paintings largely from theJaina traditions of Gujarat and Rajasthan. Thepaintings, ranging from the seventeenth to theearly twentieth century, form an eclectic andunique collection. The biggest number is found invarious Jaina manuscripts. The project willimprove scholarly access to the miniature paintingsand facilitate preservation of the original materials.

Nishtha Jain, Mumbai

Rs 5,00,000 over nine months

For the production of a film on familyphoto-albums. The film will explore personalrelationships to photo-albums. It will look at

how photographs can make for identificationand a sense of continuity with the past, howthey preserve memories, how albums are con-structed on the basis of an idealised notion offamily, and how they can move from havingpurely personal meaning to taking on historicaland archival relevance.

Centre for Studies in Social SciencesCalcutta,

Kolkata

Principal Investigator: Gautam Bhadra


For the publication of a book that docu-ments the history of print advertising in theBengali language, analysing its various formsand modes, and the media through which itwas displayed and printed. The book will alsocatalogue commercial artists and their contribu-tion to text and visual, and the impact of adver-tising on the material culture of Bengali house-holds and patterns of consumption. In addition,a visual archive of over 3,000 documents will bemade available on the Internet to trigger furtherresearch in the area.

‘The family portfolio is all about

conventions and codes. It has noth-

ing to do with “reality” and every-

thing to do with idealisation. The

precise tilt of the head that will

convey an obedient quality in a

son; the light that will add tender-

ness to a mother’s gaze; the hairstyle

that imparts to a younger sister the

pertness she must possess: it’s all

done by numbers almost.’

From Nishtha Jain’s proposal to make a filmexploring the relationship between the familyalbum and personal history.

Still from Nishtha Jain’s film.

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ARTS EDUCATION

Our grants in arts education had a stronginstitutional focus in 2005-06. We have decidedto discontinue our support for individual endeav-ours because our experience suggests that educa-tional initiatives in the arts need an organisation-al anchor for continuity and growth. This re-adjustment of our priorities coincides with a yearin which the Indian government, through theNational Curriculum Framework (2005) and theNational Council for Educational Research andTraining, has shown solid enthusiasm for invigor-ating arts education within existing school andpre-university systems.

A supplementary grant that we made toAttakkalari is enabling this contemporary danceorganisation to continue its valuable work ofintroducing the movement arts in Bangalore

schools. While this initiative will require supportfor years to come, there are modules withinAttakkalari’s Education Outreach Programmethat can eventually either yield profits or attractcorporate sponsorship.

Our grant to the National Institute ofAdvanced Studies (NIAS), an interdisciplinaryresearch centre in Bangalore, is supporting the Artin Education segment of a larger programmecalled the District Quality Education Project(DQEP) which has been launched to enhance thequality of elementary education in Karnataka’sChamarajnagar district. The DQEP has the sanc-tion of the Government of Karnataka, and NIAShas enlisted the active cooperation of a range ofother government agencies to ensure that the pro-gramme continues on course even if politicalwinds should change.

In 2005, we initiated a project, partiallysupported by the Japan Foundation, to strength-en connections between individuals and groupsin Southeast Asia and India that have beenenriching arts pedagogy in different ways. In thepast year, we designed and helped to execute tencollaborative workshops in the fields of heritageeducation, theatre, the visual arts and dance.

The project’s overall goal to create conditionsfor reflection, exchange and mutual learning wassatisfactorily met. Capacity building through theworkshops, however, was more demonstrably evi-dent in the Indian participants, compared to theirSoutheast Asian counterparts. This only under-scores the fact that arts education in India is rela-tively less developed and that there is need formore South-South dialogue in this area.

As this initiative suggests, IFA has begun to gobeyond grant making in order to make an impactin the field. We recognise the need to manage cer-tain significant projects ourselves––those which,because of their conceptual scope and geographi-cal sweep, fall outside the mandate, interests orcapacity of any potential grantee. IFA is currentlymanaging a project to track and publish critical

writing––in Bengali, Malayalam, Gujarati andMarathi––on the visual arts in the first half of thetwentieth century.

IFA proposes to support conferences and semi-nars to take advantage of the favourable climate thatnow exists for debate and discussion about the larg-er issues in arts education. These conferences couldalso help to consolidate learning derived from ongo-ing initiatives in the field and examine possible syn-ergies between them. We are also giving thought toother ways in which we could cut across specificprojects and bridge institutions to foster curriculumdevelopment and new pedagogies, and help organi-sations to build their capacity for sustained work in

this important area.

GRANTS

National Institute of Advanced Studies,Bangalore

Rs 6,44,000 over three years

For the development of teaching methodsbased on the visual arts to improve the character ofclassroom interactions and enhance the quality ofelementary education in Chamarajnagar district,Karnataka. A team of educationists, researchers andart educators will build on the local community’sunderstanding of the arts and the crafts economy ofneighbourhood villages to generate a curriculumand develop new learning and teaching practices. Incollaboration with village schoolteachers, the teamwill produce a resource book and tool kit to enableteachers to use the visual arts in the classroom.

Centre for Environmental Research andEducation, Mumbai


For the design and execution of an ‘Art-from-Waste’ project in several Mumbai schools, bring-ing together the fields of arts education and envi-ronmental education. Individual ‘art-from-waste’

ideas will be researched, developed and tested, andthen implemented in schools and evaluated. Theproject will culminate in the publication of ahandbook that will be distributed widely and willbe directed primarily at art teachers who workwith middle school children.

Attakkalari Public Charitable Trust ofContemporary Performing Arts,Bangalore


For the continuing implementation of a dance-in-education programme in Bangalore. Movementclasses will be conducted in schools and a cadre ofdance teachers trained to facilitate the dance-in-education work. Funds will also be used to strength-en the institution’s capacity to sustain this pro-

gramme through income from other sources.

PROJECTS

Forging Asian Collaborations in ArtsEducation

Rs 8,98,237 over eleven months

For arts education groups and professionals inSoutheast Asia and India to collaborate on work-shops in built heritage, theatre, the visual arts anddance. Apart from facilitating creative exchangeand mutual learning, these workshops are expect-ed to help participants build new methodologiesand strengthen their practices in arts education.

Tracking Indian Visual Art History Rs 9,00,000 over ten months

For four art historians to identify, edit andannotate critical writing––in Bengali, Malayalam,Gujarati and Marathi respectively—on the visualarts in the first half of the twentieth century. Theresulting selections will be published with theaim of reintroducing the nature of the discoursesurrounding early twentieth-century Indian artto a contemporary audience.

SPECIAL GRANTS

Many types of initiatives of special impor-tance to the arts cannot be accommodated with-in the compass of our existing grant pro-grammes. IFA introduced special grants to giveattention to the vital need to strengthen artsinfrastructure, encourage business developmentin arts organisations, and address issues of liveli-hood and sustenance. Through special grants,we can incubate and test new ideas and themesthat could in time grow to become full-fledgedgrant programmes at IFA or major initiatives forother donors to adopt. The thrust of the threespecial grants we have made so far clearly showswhere our priorities lie. For example, a grantmade in the previous year is supporting the digi-tisation of the past issues of the leading literarymagazine, Biblio, in order to maximise thepotential of its website to serve as an education-al resource and as an avenue for revenue gener-ation. A more recent grant––to MukhtiyarAli––is helping young performers of Sufi music inRajasthan to piece together their musical tradi-tion and create new opportunities for perform-ance that will earn them a decent livelihood.

The range that could be covered by specialgrants is potentially huge, given the prevalentgaps in arts funding in the country. We thereforeplan to consolidate our own grant making inthis area by identifying a particular need in thearts that calls for special intervention and sup-port. In the coming year, we intend to investi-gate if and how IFA could help strengthen thedistribution infrastructure for documentaryfilms and ‘little’ magazines in art and literature.

An unrestricted category of grants alsomakes it easier for IFA to forge partnerships withfoundations, corporations and individuals withan interest in supporting the arts in ways that areoutside the ambit of our core programmes. Oneidea is to interest the Indian diaspora with rootsin Kerala in supporting the survival ofKoodiyattam, a Sanskrit theatre form, which hasbeen declared a ‘Masterpiece of the Oral andIntangible Heritage of Humanity’ byUNESCO.

GRANTS

Mukhtiyar Ali, Pugal, Rajasthan


Support for the reinvigoration of thesufiyana kalam of the mirs of Pugal, Rajasthan. Agroup of young musicians will be strengthened,the musical repertoire consolidated and per-formance opportunities created to address theissue of livelihood for the young Sufi perform-ers. A trust will also be set up, run by membersof the community, music scholars and enthusi-asts, who will take ownership for the initiative.

Actor Vasant Rao preparing for a performance of Surabhi’sMayabazar. Photograph by K M Madhusudhanan.

SUPPORT IFASUPPORT THE ARTS

IFA has raised funds for its work in twomain ways. Grant-making organisations like theFord Foundation and the Sir Ratan Tata Trusthave been our most significant sources of sup-port. This has been supplemented by incomefrom arts events, for which we have been able toattract sponsorship from companies.

In 2005-06, we organised fundraising per-formances featuring eminent artists likeNaseeruddin Shah, Anoushka Shankar, JavedAkhtar, Pandit Jasraj and Pandit HariprasadChaurasia. We also earned consultancy feesthrough courses in the arts that we designed forthe Mudra Institute of Communications,Ahmedabad and the Indian Institute ofManagement, Bangalore.

While we are proud of our record of grantmaking, we also recognise how much more wecould do with additional support from founda-tions, trusts, corporations and the general public.IFA could extend assistance to a larger number ofdeserving projects, underwrite more ambitious ini-tiatives, and even enter new areas of grant making.We could address systemic problems that impedegrowth in the field. And we could sustain pioneer-ing and catalytic projects for longer periods.

Appreciating our potential to extend ourreach and achieve greater impact, the FordFoundation made us an endowment grant ofUS$2 million during the year. This generouslead gift has given us the confidence to beginlaying the ground to launch a corpus fundraisingcampaign in 2007––one of the three routes wehave identified to raise funds in future years.

The other two are an Individual MembershipPlan and an Arts Services Programme. The firstwill offer membership benefits to individuals whojoin the IFA’s Friend Circle and contribute a fixedamount annually for our work. The second willoffer a range of services––from guided arts toursfor the general public to arts courses for students

Lama dance during Vajrakilaya puja at Dharma Chakra Centre, Rumtek.Photographs by Arghya Basu and Manas Bhattacharya.

in institutes of professional education to arts-basedworkshops for business executives––that facilitateengagement with the arts in different ways.

Till these programmes are launched, however,individuals and organisations can support IFA tostrengthen the arts in India in the following ways.You could:

—Assist an arts sector (for instance, the crafts,architecture or the performing arts);

—Address an issue of concern to you (such asarts management or heritage conservation);

—Support the arts in a particular region inIndia;

—Fund an existing grant programme (artsresearch and documentation, extending arts prac-tice, new performance or arts education);

—Support projects selected for grants in anyyear;

—Provide assistance for disseminating theresults of various projects;

—Support institutional development at IFA(strengthen promotional work or fundraising capac-ity, for example).

Donations to IFA are managed by experiencedprofessionals under the guidance of the Board’sFinance Committee. The use of funds is monitoredand evaluated closely. IFA maintains transparency infund management at all points in time. Regularreports, both financial and narrative, enable donorsto keep track of the purpose for which their contri-butions have been used and to what effect.

Donations to IFA qualify for exemption underSection 80G of the Income Tax Act.

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

NANDITA PALCHOUDHURI, Arts and Crafts, KolkataChair

CHITRA VISWESWARAN, Classical Dance, Chennai (Till July 23, 2005)

FRANCIS WACZIARG, Commerce, Heritage Conservation, New Delhi

GURCHARAN DAS, Industry, New Delhi

JAITHIRTH (JERRY) RAO, Industry, Bangalore (From July 23, 2005)

JITISH KALLAT, Visual Arts, Mumbai (From July 23, 2005)

LALIT BHASIN, Law, New Delhi

MANI NARAYANSWAMI, Civil Service, Bangalore

PRIYA PAUL, Industry, New Delhi

N. S. RAGHAVAN, Industry, Bangalore (From July 23, 2005)

RASHMI PODDAR, Art History, Aesthetics, Mumbai

RAVI NEDUNGADI, Finance, Bangalore (From July 23, 2005)

ROMI KHOSLA, Architecture, New Delhi

SHYAM BENEGAL, Cinema, Mumbai

SIMONE N TATA, Industry, Mumbai

M V SUBBIAH, Industry, Chennai

STAFF

Anmol VellaniEXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Anjum HasanPROGRAMME EXECUTIVE

George JosePROGRAMME EXECUTIVE (Till May 31, 2005)

Madhuban MitraPROGRAMME EXECUTIVE

Sanjay Iyer PROGRAMME EXECUTIVE (From May 23, 2005)

Arundhati GhoshMANAGER: RESOURCE MOBILISATION

Agnelo VijayanMANAGER: EVENTS AND PR (From May 2, 2005)

T C JnanashekarMANAGER: MANAGEMENT SERVICES

C Suresh KumarCOORDINATOR: MANAGEMENT SERVICES

Joyce GonsalvesINFORMATION OFFICER

Aparna KolarPROGRAMME ASSOCIATE

SrimathaPROGRAMME ASSOCIATE

N Anitha BaiFRONT OFFICE ASSISTANT

PATRONS

AMITAV GHOSH

USTAD AMJAD ALI KHAN

EBRAHIM ALKAZI

PADMABHUSHAN SRI LALGUDI G JAYARAMAN

MRINALINI SARABHAI

NASEERUDDIN SHAH

SHEKHAR KAPUR

SYED HAIDER RAZA

RAJA SYED MUZAFFAR ALI

We acknowledge with gratitude the support of

The Ford Foundation

Sir Ratan Tata Trust

The Rockefeller Foundation

The Japan Foundation

And we thank the companies that sponsored our fundraisers during the year:

Bharti Airtel Ltd

ING Vysya Bank

Hindustan Lever Ltd

Spice Telecom

3M India Ltd

IBM Global Services

Monster.com India Pvt Ltd

The Park Hotels

Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces

Neemrana Hotels

Kingfisher Airlines

VISUALS: Courtesy IFA grantees.

COVER: Art from waste produced by a school student in Mumbai.

ENDPAPERS: Details of a mural at the Dharma Chakra Centre, Rumtek (front)and a Dharmapala, Rabtenling monastery, Sikkim (back). Photographs by Arghya Basu.

DESIGN: Courtesy Sunandini Banerjee, The Seagull Foundation for the Arts, Kolkata.

PRINTED BY: Ancient Future, Bangalore

Documents

ifa report 2005-06 - India Foundation for the Arts audiences and buyers, they also need inter- ventions that ensure they are not ‘commodified’ in their journey to the marketplace