Request for Proposals: Productions (Arts Practice) – India

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.

Artists might arrive at a point in their own artistic journeys when they want to revisit/reimagine their practice by challenging received frameworks and/or by exploring fresh possibilities of creating as well as presenting artistic work. Such a quest could manifest as productions that embody a spirit of enquiry and experimentation.

Under the Arts Practice Programme, the foundation invites proposals for Productions that emerge from such a quest for creative explorations. The proposals may encompass various forms such as performance, sound, visual arts, digital creations, literature, or interdisciplinary work that combine these elements. They encourage Production proposals that extend beyond documentary or fictional film production, and welcome proposals for theatre, dance, and music performances, installations, exhibitions, publications like books or zines, moving image presentations, games, digital artworks, and any other innovative forms yet to be conceived.

Focus Areas

• The programme invites proposals from practitioners working within as well as across all 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.

Funding Information

• Budget: up to a maximum of Rs 5,00,000/- (You can request for an honorarium not exceeding 35% of the proposed budget).
• Duration of the project: up to 18 months.

Eligibility Criteria

• The criteria for eligibility to apply under these programmes are as follows:
  • Only Indian nationals can apply. This does not include PIO (Persons of Indian Origin) and OCI (Overseas Citizen of India) Card Holders.
  • Applicants must have PAN card and one of the following for proof of identity and citizenship – Indian Passport or Aadhar Card or Voter’s ID in India.
  • Only individuals can apply. Organisations of any kind cannot apply (except for non-profit schools, who can only apply under the Arts-Integrated Projects in Schools category of the Arts Education programme).
  • If there are collaborators in the projects, they must also be Indian nationals.
  • More than one individual can apply if they have a joint account. If they do not, then only one among them should apply with the others as collaborators.

Ineligibility Criteria

• Persons who have a past history of financial delinquency with IFA are not eligible.
• Persons who have failed to deposit at IFA agreed deliverables from an earlier IFA grant are not eligible.
• Persons who have previously received a letter from IFA disallowing them from applying in the future for any reason are not eligible.
• Persons currently working on a project implemented by IFA are not eligible to apply.

Application Requirements

• Send them your CV (with address, phone number and email ID) and a proposal describing:
  • Your existing arts practice, concerns and interests as a practitioner
  • Details of the Production you want to create and the reason why
  • Detailed timeline and budget
  • Examples of earlier work.

For more information, visit India Foundation for the Arts.