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India Foundation for the Arts
Newsletter Edition 40
July 2017 - September 2017
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Hello Readers!

India Foundation for the Arts (IFA) is back with news on our work between July 2017 and September 2017!

This succinct narrative is the perfect way to know about the activities at IFA over these months, dive in for updates on our programmes—Arts Research, Arts Practice, Arts Education and the Archival and Museum Fellowships, and for news on our many events—film screenings, lectures, exhibitions, and more.

Please do visit our website or follow us on Twitter and facebook for updates!
We hope you enjoy the contents of this newsletter. We would love to hear from you, so write to us at contactus@indiaifa.org with any feedback or query.

Warmly,
The IFA Team

Programmes Publications
Events Point Of View
Announcements Support Us

programmes
Arts Research (AR)

The Arts Research programme at IFA supports research into the histories and expressions of artistic practices in India. Under this programme, scholars, researchers and practitioners have received support for projects that investigate marginalised or relatively unexplored areas; create spaces for dialogue between theory and practice; offer new readings/frameworks of artistic practices; and use interdisciplinary approaches to break new conceptual ground, among other things.

This year’s Request for Proposals sent out in April 2017 received an overwhelming response from the field with 160 applications! A panel of experts, comprising Rashmi Doraiswamy, Sadanand Menon and Samik Bandyopadhyay, will convene in October 2017, to make decisions on the grants to be awarded this year.

We look forward to introducing you to our newest grantees in the next newsletter. Watch this space!

In the meantime, Yousuf Saeed received a grant in 2016 for an international conference on the evolution of the Urdu language and its growth in popular culture. 'The Popular Culture of Urdu' conference was held at the Centre for Indian Languages, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, between September 08, 2017 and September 10, 2017. The conference looked at diverse practices of Urdu's popular culture – movie songs, detective fiction, ghazal gayeki, poetry inscribed behind vehicles, mushairas, and qawwalis – forms that have kept the language alive and kicking, among the masses. The speakers tackled questions ranging from differences between these popular forms and the elite cultural life of Urdu, the ways in which they engage and interact with each other, to the problems of drawing distinctions between popular and classical Urdu. The conference opened to a large audience with participants from across the country and the world including Germany, the United States of America, Finland, Pakistan and the United Kingdom.

AE
Invite to The Popular Culture of Urdu Language Conference at
Centre for Indian Languages, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

The Arts Research Programme for the years 2017 to 2019 is supported by Titan Company Limited.

Arts Practice (AP)

The Arts Practice programme supports critical practice in the arts. It encourages practitioners working across artistic disciplines to question existing notions through their practice. This period witnessed support for three projects that demonstrate these ideas.

Cartoonist and graphic artist Sarbajit Sen received support to create a graphic narrative that explores the tumultuous history of leftist rule in Bengal, and its collapse in 2011. The project attempts to understand the formation of the middleclass mindscape during this time and the challenges it faces in the current political context. It aims to analyse multiple marginal voices from the fractured histories with autobiographical references to the artist’s own life.

We made a grant to the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta (CSSSC), with research scholar Lakshmi Subramanian as the Principal Investigator, for the creation of a multi-media exhibition, seminar and performances centred on the archived collection of music, and papers of the Senia gharana exponent, Pandit Birendra Kishore Roy Chowdhury. The rich collection that includes the published and unpublished writings of Birendra Kishore, his personal notebooks, music ephemera and photographs will enable critical dialogues around music pedagogy, archiving, and engaging with archival materials for musical experimentation. The seminar, to be held in early December 2017, also aims to foreground regional perspectives in the understanding and writing of music histories.

Musician and singer Akhu Ronid Chingambam received a grant for the creation of a performance, based on diverse notions of Manipuri identity, especially among the Manipuri diaspora. He will research music, folk tales and literature of the diaspora to write a new set of songs, and perform them.

The Arts Practice programme welcomes queries and applications through the year. Apply in any language with your exciting projects, today! Visit our website for more information or write to shubham@indiaifa.org or sumana@indiaifa.org

Arts Education (AE)

The Arts Education programme called Kali-Kalisu, translated from Kannada as ‘learn and teach’, focusses on integrating arts into the curriculum at government schools in Karnataka. It achieves this objective through grants made to artists and teachers, training workshops for teachers, and block-level events for administrators. The programme seeks to involve local language, knowledge, and folk and art forms to enable a connection between the curriculum and the lived experiences of the students. This ensures the participation of the community within which the school functions, to create multiple stakeholders invested in the future of education.

Between July 11 and 13, 2017, IFA organised a Block Level Event for teachers, headmasters and administrators at Rashtrakavi Kuvempu Pratishthana, Kuppali, Shimoga, a museum dedicated to the renowned Kannada playwright and poet Kuvempu. The residential programme sought to accustom participants with the fundamentals of arts integrated classrooms, and the significance of integrating local art forms and literature into the curriculum to augment student and community engagement. Krishnamurthy T N, Programme Executive for Arts Education, IFA, led a discussion titled ‘Learning Principles for Arts Integration’ while writer, activist and farmer Kadidalu Shamanna led a session on ‘Re-Connecting schools and community through untold stories of Rastra Kavi KV Puttappa and Poorna Chandra Tejaswi’.

The programme also sensitised participants to the many pedagogical possibilities in arts integrated education, with discussions on local literature and poetry, and workshops on theatre, music and craft. The workshops covered diverse territory from the various ways to adopt theatre games in the classroom, to painting exercises and theatre techniques, to sessions on paper crafts and music composition. The three day programme drew to a close with presentations from our previous grantees and teachers Dr Satish KC, Annappa Ontimaligi, and grantee and artist, Channakeshava Koffee, who shared their experiences with Kali-Kalisu.

Archival and Museum Fellowships (AMF)

The Archival and Museum Fellowships initiative seeks to provide practitioners and researchers with an opportunity to generate new, critical and creative approaches to reading, seeing and interacting with the materials in archives and museums. It is also invested in energising these spaces as platforms for dialogue and discourse, to create awareness and increase public engagement. We had many events that sought to invigorate museum spaces, in this quarter:

The Assam State Museum, one of our collaborators on the Archival and Museum Fellowships initiative, has witnessed a slew of activities as part of the fellowships awarded to Sayantan Maitra (Boka) and Shubhasree Purkaysta. Boka screened The Men Who Hunted Heads, a film by Christoph Von Furer Haimendorf and brought Mr Mahbubur Rahman, curator and writer from Bangladesh, for a conversation on collections and museums.

Shubhasree’s exhibition Mysterious Mothers of the Museum, opened at the Museum on August 01,2017. The exhibition brought together four objects from the ‘Sculpture Collection’ of the Museum, and attempted to re-contextualise them by providing alternative identification. The exhibition sought to showcase the importance of the pre-Ahom era in Assamese history, and how it played a crucial role in shaping the socio-cultural identity of the state. She has also organised multiple activities at the Museum, with a Museum Talk by R D Chowdhury; a workshop for children on August 05, 2017; and an open lecture on pre-Ahom history by retired bureaucrat and educationist, Kanak Chandra Sharma, an expert in the field on August 10, 2017. These events attempted to introduce the audience to the ongoing work at the museum, facilitate a better engagement with the objects there.

AMF
Snapshot from the exhibition Mysterious Mothers of the Museum at Assam State Museum, Guwahati

Supriya Menon’s exhibition, Collecting the Artist, brought her fellowship at the Kerala Museum to a close, with the exhibition opening for view on August 06, 2017. Collecting the Artist (An Exhibition of Works from the Madhavan Nayar Foundation Collection) traces the untold story of this collection and pays tribute to his vision. In 1991, entrepreneur Madhavan Nayar (1914-1994) embarked upon an extraordinary project: to gift an art gallery to the city of Kochi. Over three years he acquired nearly 230 works by some of the leading artists of the century. Through a display of major works from this collection, the exhibition highlights the story of the art movements that inspired their creators. Do not miss it if you are in Kochi, for the exhibition is open for view till October 31, 2017!

We look forward to introducing you to our newest fellows who will work at the Centre for Community Knowledge (CCK), Ambedkar University Delhi, in the forthcoming newsletter! The Delhi Visual Archive at CCK is a repository of photographs – the visual history of Delhi - from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The fellowship aims to support arts practitioners to engage with the material in the archive in innovative and original ways; while also opening-up the archive to public through curated events such as talks and workshops around the material in the archive.

The Archival and Museum Fellowship initiative for the years 2015 – 2018 is supported by the Tata Trusts.

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EVENTS AND ENGAGEMENTS

We organise presentations, performances, panel discussions, film screenings and more, as Grant Showcases that take the work of our grantees to audiences across the country. Our staff members also participate in various Seminars and Conferences to talk about our programmes, projects and philosophies of grantmaking. The grant showcases help create dialogue and are exciting spaces of discovery and discussion; while the other engagements help us to continue our dialogue with the field in India and abroad on various issues and concerns on arts philanthropy. Below is a brief account of our many activities through the last few months:

IFA in collaboration with Sanatkada ka Adda and Bhatkhande Music Institute University organised a screening of Casting Music, by Ashok Maridas on July 16, 2017 at Sanatkada, and on July 17, 2017 at the Bhatkhande Music Institute University, Lucknow. Casting Music seeks to explore the musical tradition of the Savita Samaj, a community in Karnataka, whose contributions to the musical legacy of the Nadaswaram has remained untold.
This project was made possible with support from Titan Company Limited

Events
Still from the film Casting Music screened at Sanatkada and Bhatkhande Music Institute University, Lucknow

We presented Searching Cultures - Performing Resistance: Screening of Gali, in collaboration with Tamaasha Theatre, on July 22, 2017 at Studio Tamaasha, Mumbai. The film by Samreen Farooqui and Shabani Hassanwalia explores the street subculture of B-boying and Breaking in Delhi. Gali was also screened, in collaboration with Lamakaan in Hyderabad on July 25, 2017.
This project was made possible with support from Titan Company Limited

Our collaboration with Kerala Museum for an Archival and Museum fellowship culminated with an exhibition Collecting the Artist (An exhibition of works from the Madhavan Nayar Foundation Collection), curated by our fellow Supriya Menon. The exhibition opened on August 05, 2017 at the Kerala Museum, Kochi and will be on show till October 31, 2017. Do not miss it, if you find yourself in Kochi!
This fellowship was made possible with support from Tata Trusts.

We launched our Arts Education Film - 7 years of Kali-Kalisu on August 18, 2017 at the Rangasthala, Rangoli Metro Art Center, Bangalore. The film provides glimpses into one of the oldest programmes at IFA. Do follow the link to watch the film!
This film and the Arts Education programme for the year 2016 - 2017 were supported by Citi India.

Events
Invite to the launch of the Arts Education Film - 7 years of Kali-Kalisu at Rangoli Metro Art Center, Bangalore

IFA organised a presentation, Afterthoughts of the Novel, by Dhruv Jani, Avik Mukhopadhayay and Madhuja Mukherjee on August 31, 2017 at The Park, Bangalore. The presentations explored ways of looking at literature through different art forms and platforms.
These projects were made possible with support from Technicolor India.

Events
Avik Mukhopadhayay presents as part of Afterthoughts of the Novel at The Park, Bangalore

On September 02, 2017, IFA inaugurated an exhibition, A Tale of Two Icons and the Assam IPTA Movement: Hemango Biswas and Bhupen Hazarika curated by Rongili Biswas at Jadunath Bhavan, Kolkata. The exhibition, on view for a week, reconstructed the spirit of the time when Hemango Biswas and Bhupen Hazarika embarked on the peace initiative with the artistes’ troupe, to counter the linguistic riots of Assam in 1960.
This fellowship was made possible with support from Tata Trusts.

Between September 08 and 10, 2017 we supported a three day international conference, The Popular Culture of Urdu Language at the Centre for Indian Languages, Jawaharlal Nehru University. The conference examined diverse iterations of Urdu popular culture.

As part of our ongoing collaboration with Tamaasha Theatre called Searching Cultures, we brought to Mumbai a presentation by Rongili Biswas on the process of putting together the exhibition, A Tale of Two Icons and the Assam IPTA Movement: Hemango Biswas and Bhupen Hazarika, on September 23, 2017 at Studio Tamaasha, Mumbai.
This fellowship was made possible with support from Tata Trusts.

Members of our staff travelled far and wide to participate in discussions on arts and philanthropy.

Shubham Roy Choudhury, Programme Executive for the Arts Practice programme was awarded the inaugural Global Cultural Fellowship by the Institute For International Cultural Relations, University of Edinburgh for the year 2017-2018. As part of his fellowship he attended the summer arts and cultural festivals in Edinburgh with other fellows, from around the globe. Over eight days they attended shows at the Edinburgh International Festival, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and the Edinburgh International Book Festival, and debated the underpinning values that saw Edinburgh become a festival city.

IFA launched Catalyst – Arts an Inspiration for Excellence, in November, 2015. Catalyst is a unique initiative, which brings together eminent artists, who share their experiences on their pursuit of excellence, at corporate venues. As part of this initiative, we have partnered with corporate houses, including Biocon Limited, Sasken Communication Technologies, Centum Electronics, Cisco Systems Inc, and Titan Company Limited. In the last few months artist Sanjna Kapoor conducted a session, talking about her artistic journey at Biocon Limited; while through the year we have also had artists, Ratna Pathak Shah, Arundhati Nag, Atul Dodiya, Nandita Das, Romi Khosla, Raghu Rai, Rahul Ram, and Aditi Mangaldas share about their experiences at various corporate venues in Bangalore.

Events
Sanjna Kapoor talks about her journey with the arts at Biocon Limited, Bangalore

For more details on Catalyst or if you would like to bring this programme to your company, write to joyce@indiaifa.org

IFA engages in consultancies and arts services based on our experience of working in the arts over 22 years, a part of this also includes connecting artists and corporates. Under this initiative, Ronny Sen continued his journey in partnership with Eicher Motors Limited’s Royal Enfield team, which sees the photographer visually document the Indian highways from the perspective of a cruiser. He has so far travelled through Mumbai, Goa, Kerala, Kanyakumari, Chennai, and onwards to Kolkata, bringing together the machine, the landscape, the people, and the rider in stark frames.

For more details on the Arts Services provided by IFA, please write to menaka@indiaifa.org

We organised three MaathuKathes this quarter. MaathuKathe, meaning 'conversations' in Kannada, are monthly sessions where we invite artists to perform, screen, or read from their work, or talk about their projects and the creative processes behind their artistic journeys. These sessions are marked by invigorating dialogue on the arts and have brought filmmaker Nandit Desai, thespian Maya Rao, and theatre practitioner Basav Biradar to our office. Nandit talked about the process of making Gwalior: A Journey of Indian Music, following a screening of the film, which traces the Gwalior gharana of Hindustani music. Maya shared her journey with theatre as a practitioner and an educator, talking about drama-in-education as well as her processes of theatre-making. Basav screened Before The Third Bell - a film on theatre making processes, on contemporary theatre in India, followed by a Q&A session with the filmmaker.

Events

MaathuKathe - (Top Left) Maya Rao;
(Top Right) Still from Before The Third Bell by Basav Biradar; (Bottom) Nandit Desai

Upcoming Events

bird_bullet On Monday, November 06, 2017, IFA will welcome Justin O’Connor, professor of communications and cultural economy at Monash University, Australia, for a talk on Music in the Ruins of Time: the underground in Manchester and Shanghai. Justin will talk about cities, music, and ruins - moving from Manchester, UK of the 1970s to present day Shanghai, China!

bird_bullet On Sunday, November 12, 2017 we invite you to join us at the Mumbai Assembly for Three Hearings on the Existence of Snakes in the Human Bloodstream, a play by theatre practitioner, Shena Gamat, which is based on the science fiction short story of the same name, by James Alan Gardner. The play examines questions around the process of 'othering'.

For more details on these events, do sign up for our emails here, follow us on facebook or Twitter for regular updates, or simply tune into our website at: www.indiaifa.org/events

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announcements

bird_bullet Arts Practice
Request for Proposals from practitioners
[No Calendar]
For more information, write to the Programme Executives at sumana@indiaifa.org
and shubham@indiaifa.org

bird_bullet Last chance to Become a Friend of IFA at Rs 3500/-
We are excited to announce the launch of our newly revamped individual donor programme, Friend of IFA, at the end of October 2017. As a Friend, you will be contributing directly to philanthropy in the arts, and help increase its presence in public life. Follow us on facebook or Twitter, or sign-up for our emails for the launch of the initiative, and come be a part of the IFA family! Sign-up today at Rs 3500. Hurry, for the rates are set to go up to Rs 5000 later this month!

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publications

Our latest publication Painters, Poets, Performers: The Patuas of Bengal will soon be available for purchase!

Events
Book cover - Painters, Poets, Performers: The Patuas of Bengal

The visually rich and informative book on the history and evolution of Patachitra in Bengal provides an overview of this narrative tradition of pictorial storytelling and its multi-talented, polymath makers. Follow us on facebook or Twitter, or sign-up for our emails for more information on buying the book!
This book is supported by Infosys Foundation.

We also have an interesting set of other publications to offer, including postcards featuring our grantees' work, books and back issues of our magazine on the arts and culture, Art Connect. You can avail of special anniversary discounts on Limited Edition collections. All the proceeds from the sale of publications go back into grantmaking. To know more, write to contactus@indiaifa.org

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point of view

Supriya Menon
Mumbai | Archival and Museum Fellowships | 2016 – 2017
Supriya received an Archival and Museum Fellowship to work with the Kerala Museum, Kochi to envisage and curate a series of public engagements with the museum’s collection that includes exhibitions, public programmes and outreach events for both adults and children. The Kerala Museum’s collection is representative of important milestones in the world of visual art from all over India. Beginning with Raja Ravi Verma, Abanindranath Tagore and Ramkinker Baij, the collection also includes artists from Shantiniketan; the Bengal School; those who were part of the Progressive Movement like M F Husain, F N Souza, Akbar Padamsee, as well as contemporary artists like Surendran Nair, Rekha Rodwittiya and Shibu Natesan. Supriya has just completed her fellowship with the exhibition, Collecting the Artist, that opened at the museum on August 05, 2017.

Supriya Menon is a Mumbai based curator and researcher. She has worked on a range of cultural projects in India since 2014, including the Bihar Museum, the Dharavi Biennale and Medicine Corner- a British arts project exploring medicine and healing in India. She has previously worked in public engagement and research roles at various museums in England, including the Wellcome Collection, Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, and Victoria and Albert Museum.


IFA: You came into this project with an ambitious list of events that you would curate at the museum. Were you able to implement all of them? Could you tell us about the challenges you faced and the final ideas that you were actually able to execute?

Supriya Menon: The Fellowship called for programmes and exhibitions that would allow visitors to meaningfully engage with the museum’s collection. I began traditionally, by trying to understand what ‘visitors’ could mean – school students, families, tourists, local residents and so on, and what events were already in place at the museum. By understanding what types of visitors were coming into the museum, it would be possible to formulate targeted programmes which enabled the museum’s traditional audiences to engage better with the collection, brought new groups into the museum, and ultimately increased the museum’s visitor numbers.

So coming in, the list comprised of the widest possible range of events that could potentially be executed in the museum, based on my past work experiences with other institutions. This included gallery trails, film screenings, tours for the disabled, new exhibitions and workshops and so on.

When I finally began working at the museum, I had a nice reality check. I needed time to research to actually understand the collection, as well as the realities of the city’s cultural landscape, the museum’s position within it, and importantly, the resources available to execute any programme. For example, the museum is located outside the city’s cultural circuit, and has limited systems to market its events. Visitors unfortunately won’t just conveniently turn up to engage with events or exhibitions if the museum was not on their radar. So this meant forming networks with influential interest groups such as art colleges or the artist community. I was able to meet many of different kinds of people who I could collaborate with and tap into for museum events, and who were able to act as an informal network to spread word about the museum’s activities

Ultimately, I was able to set up two exhibitions, one artist performance, two film screenings, two workshops, and also organised the Google Art Project to come in to document the collection!

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Image from the exhibition Shifting Narratives at the Kerala Museum, Kochi

IFA: You have tried to actively engage the public with the Kerala Museum and its collection through your fellowship period. Please tell us about some of the activities and events you organised, and the response these events received.

Supriya Menon: I organised two exhibitions: Shifting Narratives (December 2016-February 2017) and Collecting the Artist (August 2017-November 2017). With both exhibitions, the aim was to use my research about the artists and the works to tell new stories about the collection.

Two film screenings were organised while Shifting Narratives was on. The first one was the National Award Winning documentary A Far Afternoon, which we loaned from Chennai based filmmaker Sruti Harihara. It follows artist Krishen Khanna as he goes about making a five-part painting called A Far Afternoon (it's lovely, do look it up). We have Krishen Khanna’s works in the collection and one was on display in Shifting Narratives, so it made sense to screen the film during this period. Screening a documentary about art could (and did) end up being a rather niche event, so I went about to two art colleges in and outside of Kochi to meet the heads of department, promote the event and invite them to the museum. To my surprise, nearly 80 students travelled in to watch the film and we had to organise a special screening for them! We were also able to form a good relationship with both colleges. One of them took up our offer to host their postgraduate students’ final art show at the Kerala Museum in April 2017, and we continue to be in touch with them to explore more collaborations.

Few members of the public attended screenings of both A Far Afternoon and the second film, Gaman, despite listing it in the newspapers, online, and promoting it through the museum’s newsletters. Marketing continues to be a challenge.

Workshops were quite successful! The first one, ‘Storytelling through Comics’, was led by children’s book illustrator Priya Kuriyan and was immensely popular. The aim was to explore a theme from our collection (in this case, migration), and invite people to think of creative ways to structure and tell stories. The second workshop, ‘Hot off the Press’, saw award winning, young printmaker Jayesh Barsathi lead a two-day printmaking workshop, talking about printmaking techniques to a very talented bunch of participants.

Both workshops brought in an eclectic mix of people: a sound engineer, radio jockey, filmmaker, artists, students, home-makers. They allowed us to understand what kind of activities might work in the museum (hands-on stuff seems to have more takers), how to price events (people are willing to pay if the events offer something ‘substantial’), and most importantly – that there definitely are people who are interested in the museum and its events!

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Invite to the screening of A Far Afternoon at the Kerala Museum, Kochi

IFA: Your fellowship concluded with the exhibition, Collecting the Artist. Could you tell us a little about your choice of title and the works in this exhibition?

Supriya Menon: Let’s break the titled down. First, about the ‘collecting’ part:

When I started out on the fellowship, the vast scope of this tiny collection and its fragmentary nature used to baffle me. I needed to know why it was the way it was – about its collector Madhavan Nayar, his collecting process (230 works in three years!) and his vision for the space. The collector is, after all, everywhere: his bust greets the visitor at the entrance, his efforts are laid out before them and the museum foundation is named after him. Yet, he is nowhere within the space. So the exhibition sets off exploring his story, the very act of ‘collecting’.

As for ‘the artist’: Nayar envisioned his collection as a resource for art students and the general public. The artists whose works are in the collection are widely acknowledged as significant figures in Indian art, and for Nayar, the inclusion of their works was necessary to offer a panoramic view of modern Indian art. We recently came across many of Nayar’s correspondences with artists among the museum’s files, and these are a part of the exhibition. They offer a glimpse into his nature, his dogged pursuit of works of certain artists, his relationship with them and the importance he assigned to the artist – often over the actual artwork. It was really exciting bringing the archive into the exhibition space, and it provided important context about the collection and its history.

The artists whose works are in the collection include Raja Ravi Varma, Abanindranath Tagore, Ramkinkar Baij, Jamini Roy, MF Husain, FN Souza, Ram Kumar, Jogen Chowdhury, Somanth Hore, Ganesh Haloi, KG Subramanyan, Bhupen Khakhar, Rekha Rodwittiya, Surendran Nair, and Jeram Patel. Their works are organised by time – each cluster brings together works influenced by a common ideology, or school of art.

On the inauguration day, we had artist Murali Cheeroth visit us from Bangalore, and he led guests through an experimental walk through the galleries. Murali used to work with Madhavan Nayar when the collection was being assembled, and he was instrumental in helping Nayar acquire works of artists in Bengal, particularly those of stalwarts from Shantiniketan. Murali led a multi-sensory walk which saw him revisit his interactions with Nayar, and the artists whose works were on display. His lively personal stories about the early days of the collection shed new light on the processes that led to the works coming to the museum, and added a very important layer of interpretation to the exhibition. The recording of his performance will form an important part of the museum’s archive.

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Image from the workshop 'Storytelling Through Comics' at the Kerala Museum, Kochi

IFA: Do you think these fellowships instituted by IFA help bring these spaces alive? Could you talk about your experience as a fellow at the Kerala Museum.

Supriya Menon: Absolutely. Museums struggling for financial and institutional resources often get bogged down by the day to day business of just running the space. There is also a tendency to continue established trends, which may just be out-dated. Museums have moved on so much – we have such exciting things happening in the sector, so much experimentation and important discussions about what the purpose of a museum is, how it should be serving audiences, and the need to shift from didactic displays to interactive, engaging programmes where learning can actually be fun and experiential. The Kerala Museum trustees are open-minded – they are willing to try new things but needed someone who could formulate new ideas and execute them. The IFA fellowship was ideal for them because it allowed us to explore what is possible in such a space, and think about what steps need to be taken so that more engaging programmes can be created and run here. For me, this was a brilliant opportunity to explore modern Indian art, actively undertaking programming, negotiating audience needs and museum resources, and working fairly independently in an institution that was flexible and eager to experiment along with me!

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Image from the printmaking workshop 'Hot Off The Press', at the Kerala Museum, Kochi

IFA: After your one-year stint at the museum, how do you see the space moving forward in the future?

Supriya Menon: The museum has just completed 30 years, and is currently in the process of formulating a new goal and vision for its future. It plans to update its programmes and facilities, and reconnect with audiences. Lots of potential and exciting times ahead!

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Support Us

India Foundation for the Arts makes grants to artists, scholars and institutions throughout the year. For all these exciting projects to take shape, we have to constantly raise funds. We would like to thank our donors who have supported us and made the many projects possible in the last few months. We would especially like to acknowledge the support from Technicolor India and Lohia Charitable Foundation, this quarter.

You can support and engage with IFA in many ways—by becoming a Friend of IFA or a Donor Patron or even by sponsoring our fundraising events and by spreading the word about IFA. Every contribution counts.

bird_bullet   Last chance to Become a Friend of IFA at Rs 3500/-
We are excited to announce the launch of our newly revamped individual donor programme, Friend of IFA, at the end of October 2017. As a Friend, you will be contributing directly to philanthropy in the arts, and help increase its presence in public life. Follow us on facebook or Twitter, or sign-up for our emails for the launch of the initiative, and come be a part of the IFA family!
Sign-up today at Rs 3500. Hurry, for the rates are set to go up to Rs 5000 later this month!
Become a Friend of IFA.

bird_bullet   Become a Donor Patron
We invite you to donate generously and join IFA's Donor Patron Circles and be a part of the IFA family. By joining IFA's Donor Patron Circles, you can choose to contribute directly to our a Corpus or support a specific grantee whose work is of interest to you; you can underwrite operational costs or extend your support to any one of our programmes. Donor Patron circles include Platinum, Gold and Silver categories. Patrons receive a mention in our Annual Report; get exclusive access to IFA events and more. Learn more about our Donor Patron Circle.

bird_bullet   You can support us by sponsoring our events, inviting our grantees to showcase their work at your workplace or home, or even attending our events, and forwarding this newsletter to your friends who are interested in the arts. If you would like to support IFA in anyway, please contact Menaka Rodriguez at menaka@indiaifa.org

bird_bullet   You can also support us by liking us on facebook and following us on Twitter and Youtube. Stay tuned to know more about our projects, initiatives and exciting events!

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