Call for Application: Museum Fellowship, Kerala Museum (CLOSED)

India Foundation for the Arts
in collaboration with the
Kerala Museum

invites applications for a

Museum Fellowship
Application deadline: May 21,2016

This initiative is supported by TATA TRUSTS

India Foundation for the Arts (IFA) in collaboration with the Kerala Museum invites applications for a Museum Fellowship for a period of eight months.

These Museum Fellowships have been initiated with the two-fold objective of providing practitioners with an opportunity to generate new, creative, and critical approaches to public engagement with collections in museums, and energising museumsas spaces for dialogue and discourse.

The Kerala Museum, set within the lush gardens of the Madhavan Nayar Foundation in Kochi, includes a Museum of Kerala History, a Gallery of Contemporary Indian Art, the Museum Amphitheatre, and the Visual Arts Centre. The Gallery of Contemporary Indian Art houses Madhavan Nayar's private collection of over three hundred paintings, and sculptures by well-known Indian artists ranging from the late 19th century to the present.

This Museum Fellowship will support a curator to explore innovative ways of animating, and re-presenting the Gallery's eclectic yet representative collection from a contemporary context.

About the Gallery of Contemporary Indian Art:
The Kerala Museum was established by R Madhavan Nayar, entrepreneur and philanthropist under the aegis of the Madhavan Nayar Foundation, in 1984. The Gallery of Contemporary Indian Art was inaugurated in 1986. Nayarwas passionate about the arts, visited galleries all over India, and met as many artists as he could before acquiring the works. His vision was to build a museum that would house these works, and make them accessible to a larger public. With this in view, Nayar's collection is representative of important milestones in the world of visual art from all over India. Beginning with Raja Ravi Verma, Rama Verma, and Abanindranath Tagore, the collection includes artists from Shantiniketan; artists from the Bengal School; artists who were part of the Progressive Movement like M F Husain, F N Souza, Akbar Padamsee, up to the present.

For more information about the Kerala Museum and the collection at the Gallery of Indian Art, please visit their website http://www.keralamuseum.com/art-gallery. For more information about the collection please contact arundhaty.nayar@gmail.com

About the Fellowship: 
The fellowship encourages the curator to engage with the collection and devise a programme that will make the work accessible to the viewing public in different ways. This could mean an artwork(s) from the past could be used to trace a history or histories of different times and places; or artwork(s) could be used as triggers to develop unexplored connections. Please note that these are just suggestions, and we are interested in all kinds of experimental proposals.

An important feature of this fellowship is the engagement with the local community: the fellow will be responsible for curating an exhibition, and presenting the collection through a series of activities such as talks, workshops, and other public programmes over a period of eight months.

Application requirements / application process & important dates:

  • Applicant profile: We seek applications from curators, and art historians with previous curatorial experience, and a strong interest in working with collections, and initiating outreach programmes.We encourage applicants based in Kerala, and conversant with the language to apply, as they will have to engage with the local community.
    Practitioners who are Indian nationals or have been a resident of India for five or more years are eligible to apply.
  • Financial assistance and other support: Each fellowship provides an honorarium of Rs 2,00,000/- for a duration of eight months. A separate budget will be provided for the exhibition and outreach activities.

Important dates:

  • The deadline for receiving applications is May 21, 2016
  • Shortlisted candidates will be informed by June 01, 2016
  • Interviews are expected to take place by the second week of June
  • The Fellowship start date is scheduled for June 20, 2016

Application Process:
Your application must include:

  • A brief description of an exhibition, and public programme you could potentially develop from the Gallery of Contemporary Art, Kerala Museum, Kochi. The description should include the vision, approach, and possible outcomes of the programme. The intention is to give us an idea of how you would like to approach this project.
  • A letter of interest explaining how you would benefit from this Museum Fellowship. Please identify aspects of your practice that you think will be honed, and further developed during the course of the Fellowship.
  • A brief description of a project you have been involved with as a curator. The description would include the vision, approach, processes ,and outcomes that have resulted from the project. Please include documentation of the project including 6 to 8 scanned or printed images with titles and date, DVD (max. 4 minutes), catalogues, artworks, performances, or reviews.
  • Your curriculum vitae.

Please address any queries about the fellowship to suman@indiaifa.org
Contact: +91-80-2341 4681 / 82
Please post the required documents to IFA in an envelope marked 'Kerala Museum Fellowship' by May 21, 2016.

Kerala Museum Fellowship
India Foundation for the Arts
'Apurva', Ground Floor,
No 259, 4th Cross, RMV 2nd Stage, 2nd Block
Bangalore - 560 094, India