IFA invites proposals for its Arts Research and Documentation programme....
May 16, 2013 12:00:00 AM IST MTG editorial
The India Foundation for the Arts (IFA) is inviting proposals under its Arts Research and Documentation programme for the year 2013-2014. The last date for the receipt of draft proposals is June 15, 2013 and the last date for the receipt of final proposals is July 15, 2013.
For details on the grant application procedure please read the complete Request for Proposals below. You can also download a PDF version of the file in English. The document will soon be available in other languages on the IFA website.
Request for Proposals
Are you a researcher or an artist interested in:
1) Studying the changing practices in the contemporary arts? Or
2) Exploring how artistic practices are constructed and come to be regarded as 'tradition'?
Scope
This grant programme supports scholars/researchers and artists to undertake research and documentation projects falling under either one of the two following themes:
1) Research and documentation that seeks to study new developments in contemporary arts practice.
As a researcher or artist, you may want to study new developments or changing practices in the contemporary arts. For instance, you may want to study the intersection of technology-television and the Internet-and contemporary art. You may want to investigate site-specific work that engages with local communities or the natural environment. Or you may want to examine democratic art practices that blur the boundary between the artist and the audience.
You might want to use existing methods of research and/or create new conceptual or technical tools that depart from existing disciplinary methodologies to illuminate and contribute to the study of contemporary arts practices.
2) Research and documentation that critically examines how artistic traditions are constructed or reinvented.
The word 'tradition' comes from the Latin word traditionem, which literally means 'handing over'. What is handed over from one generation to the next may be knowledge, beliefs, legends, practices and so on. Tradition can also refer to long established ways of thinking or acting within a continuing pattern of cultural beliefs or practices.
However, because tradition provides a powerful source of endorsement and sanction for certain practices, beliefs, values and norms of behaviour, it is often invented or reconstructed, as against simply inherited. Many practices which are seen as tradition are in fact quite recent inventions, often deliberately constructed for a variety of reasons, such as to legitimize certain actions, power equations or social hierarchies, to foster group cohesion and cement collective identities, or to support political ideologies, agendas or interests. Artistic traditions are also deliberately re-described and reinvented to create new audiences and markets for them.
Support under this theme is available for researchers or artists who are interested in studying why or how traditions are constructed. For example, you may be interested in examining the new meanings, values and symbols that are created when a tradition is invented or reinvented or what might be excluded, lost, concealed or suppressed in the process. You may be interested in how this phenomenon alters the relationship between the artist, the art form/practice and the context of its production and reception. Or you may be interested in looking at the influences and ideologies that underlie or determine such constructions of tradition.
Application
IFA staff would be glad to answer your questions regarding this grant programme. You can send a draft proposal for suggestions and comments no later than 15 June 2013.
Your final applications should be in hard copy and reach IFA on or before July 15, 2013. You can expect grant awards to be announced by October 2013.
You may choose to write your proposal in any Indian language including English.
Your project may have a minimum duration of twelve months and a maximum duration of eighteen months.
You can request for support up to Rs 3 lakh. If you are a filmmaker, you can request for support up to Rs 5 lakh.
You may budget for an honorarium of Rs 12,000/- per month subject to a maximum limit of Rs 1,44,000 for the entire duration of the grant. Please note that the total grant amount is inclusive of the honorarium.
To apply, please send IFA a proposal describing:
The specific artistic tradition(s) OR contemporary art practice that you seek to research and/or document.
The research questions central to your project.
The research methodology that you seek to follow and/or new methodologies that you wish to pursue in order to tackle your subject of inquiry.
The anticipated duration of your project, as well as a work plan.
The proposed outcomes of your project.
The proposal will be considered incomplete if you do not include the following:
Supporting material, if any, which gives us a sense of your work.
Your bio-data.
A detailed budget breakdown that explains how funds will be used. Please also mention funds anticipated from other sources, if any.
Your address, telephone/fax numbers, and e-mail address.
If you are applying on behalf of an institution, please include background information on the organisation as well as the memorandum of association/trust deed, annual reports, and audited statements of accounts for the past three years.
General Information
1) IFA funds will cover only project-related personnel costs, activities and travel, and can provide for modest equipment and materials, if necessary. Please ensure that each budget category pertains to a specific item of project-related expenditure.
2) If you are an individual, please budget for an accountant.
3) Please do not budget for institutional overheads, building costs and infrastructural development.
4) Please do not make your identity evident in the text of the proposal.
5) You can send IFA your draft proposal by email but your final proposal, including your supporting material should be in hard copy only.
6) You are responsible for the delivery of your proposal and supporting material to IFA by the closing date. Late applications will not be accepted.
7) If your proposal is short-listed, you may be requested to respond to evaluations.
8) Your proposal will be assessed with the help of external evaluators, and IFA's decision on grants will be final.
Eligibility
You are eligible to apply if you are an Indian national, a registered non-profit Indian organisation, or have been resident in India for at least five years.
Please address your application and all other communication to: Tanveer Ajsi Programme Executive India Foundation for the Arts 'Apurva', Ground floor, No 259, 4th Cross, Raj Mahal Vilas, 2nd Stage, 2nd Block, Bengaluru 560 094.
