Request for Proposals: Arts Platforms | Deadline: August 31, 2026

India Foundation for the Arts (IFA) invites applications for
Arts Platforms
Under its Arts Practice programme

Deadline: August 31, 2026

The Arts Practice programme seeks to implement projects where artists expand their present range of practices in new directions. 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.

Arts Platforms

As artists, we often feel the need to come together to collaborate and ignite collective action through art-making. When artists gather across regions, practices, and generations, it enables them to form peer groups, networks and cohorts to discuss, innovate, and improvise on concepts and techniques. By creating spaces for knowledge exchange, dialogue, debate, learning, and collective growth, these platforms become significant incubators for unforeseen confluences of artistic energies.

Such networks enable progressive artists to respond dynamically to socio-political events, create sustainable frameworks for art practices, build resilient art communities, and offer crucial spaces for listening to hitherto unheard voices. By pooling resources and encouraging shared ownership, Arts Platforms nurture creative ecosystems that prioritise inclusivity, adaptability, and long-term impact, ensuring that artistic practices are responsive to changing contexts. It values innovation, solidarity, and the power of collective agency in the arts.

Under the Arts Practice programme, we invite proposals for Arts Platforms which could include situations like workshops, residencies, artists’ gatherings, that seek to build and stimulate networks and spaces (physical, online or a hybrid of both). These initiatives should bring together artists within or across practices on a common ground with the aim of fostering exchange, nurturing collaboration, enabling creativity, and supporting the sustainability of their practices.

Duration of the project

Up to 12 months

Budget

Up to a maximum of Rs 3,00,000/-

Who can Apply?

We invite proposals from practitioners working within as well as across 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 (non-fiction and fiction), animation, photography, installation, new media, creative coding, Artificial Intelligence, robotics, interactive arts, gaming/ concept art, painting, sculpture, printmaking, comic books, graphic narrative, artist books, and other visual arts
  • Curators, especially those working outside of the gallery context
  • Poets, novelists, short fiction writers, playwrights, film script writers, comics writers, game writers, creative nonfiction writers, working with literary arts
  • Practitioners engaged in interdisciplinary work

Submission Guidelines

You can write your proposal in any Indian language, including English. IFA encourages projects in Indian languages other than English.

Send us your proposal with the following:

  • Your existing arts practice, concerns and interests as a practitioner
  • Your motivation to cultivate the Arts Platform 
  • Comprehensive details about the Arts Platform you aim to create—its purpose, the partners and collaborators involved, and the network, space, place or location where you plan to host or activate it.
  • Detailed timeline of activities 
  • Comprehensive budget breakdown 
  • Examples of earlier work relevant to this application
  • Your CV with your current postal address, phone number and email ID
  • Send your final application in a single email to John Xaviers, Programme Officer, Arts Practice at john@indiaifa.org with the subject line: Project Proposal for Arts Platforms (Arts Practice).
  • For any queries and clarifications regarding your proposal, please write to john@indiaifa.org

Eligibility

  • 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 a 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.
  • If there are collaborators in the projects, they must also be Indian nationals.
  • 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. 
  • 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.

Selection Process

Shortlisted proposals will be evaluated by an external panel and applicants will be required to present their project ideas to the panel.

All selected projects will be implemented by IFA.

Key Dates

  • You can send us your queries and draft ideas in written, audio or video formats for response from IFA staff till August 21, 2026
  • Deadline for Final Proposals: August 31, 2026
  • Announcement of Selected Projects: November 2026

Please note that IFA is committed to creating a safe environment that supports, respects, and protects everyone, including children. The applicant must be aligned with this and must uphold it at all times.