Staying Connected #28 | Witnessing the Changing Arts Landscape | April 30, 2025
We hope you’re doing well! In the last year, we’ve had the chance to read and engage with many project ideas. As always, we are most struck with the enquiries and concerns that artists occupy themselves with, and it in turn, expands our understanding of the world. We also had an intense but exciting time engaging with everyone as we hosted a festival and a conference. It was heartening to look back on how the projects we’ve supported have evolved, and would like to take a moment to thank you for continuing to build relationships with us. Without further ado, take a look at the projects we have implemented in the past year, our public engagement programmes, and other exciting stuff we’ve been working on!
New Projects at IFA
In 2024-25, we implemented 48 projects under our five programmes from across the country. They represent a wide range of artistic modes—filmmaking workshops, puppetry, dance, graphic novels, sound art, photography, zines, comics—to name a few, through transdisciplinary methods that merge conservation, oral history, science, visual storytelling, and other collaborative processes. We are excited to see where these projects go!
Project Showcase@IFA
Project Showcase@IFA is a series of monthly presentations to showcase, discuss, and engage audiences with the diverse projects we support and implement across programmes.
Watch and listen to a playlist of conversations held from April 2024 to March 2025 on varied themes: from stories of the Kolkata wetlands, the building of a lexicon on the habits during night to histories of women in the Malayalam film industry. The series is a resource for anyone interested in how and why artists do what they do.
Arts Research: A Festival and a Report
In 2024, one of our flagship programmes - Arts Research - went into review after 10 years to assess its reach and fill in the gaps. To celebrate this milestone, we hosted a festival Past Forward: Pleasure, Purpose and Practice of Arts Research in October with panel discussions, film screenings, talks, exhibitions (and so much more!), that showcased around 70 projects weaving a tapestry of complex realities and imaginations that the projects find themselves in. Explore some snippets here
As part of the review process, we also commissioned art historian and researcher Shramona Maiti to conduct a study to explore the current state of arts research and funding in India. Through a series of interviews conducted with 37 practitioners and researchers from various fields such as visual arts, performing arts, cinema, technology, and allied fields, the study aims to reveal a landscape shaped by the intersections of institutional frameworks, funding challenges, and regional disparities—all of which play a crucial role in shaping the ecology of arts research in the country today. Read it now:
Arts Research and its Changing Understanding in India: A Report by Shramona Maiti | 2024
Arts Education: Responding to Changing Landscapes
A Southern Indian Conference
In February 2025, we organised an Arts Education conference in Hyderabad that brought together teachers, artists, educators, school administrators, researchers, parents, and students, galleries, museums, and libraries, to foster dialogue around discourse and exchanges in arts education, and address the significant gaps between current art education policies, curriculum frameworks, and teaching strategies. Explore our image gallery here
Mohbat Je Medhan Me | A Dastaan performance
Mohbat Je Medhan Me (In the Arena of Love) was a special musical performance in Bangalore by Asif Rayama and his troupe from Kutch, Gujarat. The daastan was based on renowned Sindhi poet Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai’s songs about love, beauty, and the troubles one takes to meet a beloved. Listen to the journey of the lover, as depicted in the words of the Sufi poet.
Get Involved with IFA!
Listen to Karthik Venkatesh (Author and Friend of IFA) speak about the power of individual giving and how every contribution can fuel artistic expression and innovation
What does art mean to you? For us, it is a way of life, a means to carry on, and a way to build community through artistic explorations. You too, can contribute to implementing such interventions that enrich lives.
Our Friend of IFA, Karthik Venkatesh shares how becoming a Friend helps keep the arts alive and enables projects that uncover forgotten histories, amplify unheard voices, and bring powerful stories to life. He invites you join the Friend of IFA circle to continue to fuel artistic expression and innovation.
Become a Friend of IFA by donating ₹ 5000 or more. Your contribution today can bring new stories to life tomorrow.
To contribute online, click here, or email aditi@indiaifa.org to know more.
Your donation is tax-exempt under Section 80G of the Income Tax Act in India.