Annual Report 2005-2006 - India Foundation for the Arts

EXTENDING ARTS PRACTICEGroundbreaking achievements in the artsoften occur unexpectedly. Amrita Sher-Gil’spaintings, Salman Rushdie’s novels or UdayShankar’s vision of modern dance, were not bornin a vacuum but neither were they the result ofconscious nurturing on anyone’s part. So while itis difficult to anticipate radical ideas in the arts, itis entirely possible to encourage the developmentof a milieu that is hospitable to such ideas.This is the intention behind our ExtendingArts Practice programme. It was launched in July2005 to support the innovative, the untried andthe fresh in the practice of the arts. At the sametime, we do not want to make a fetish of the new:artists may be searching for another direction fortheir art even if they are not seeking to produceself-professedly experimental work. In a culturethat is not generally encouraging of the exploratoryand the open-ended, our primary aim is to giveartists the confidence to try out new ideas and lookfor fresh ways in which to express themselves.The four grants we have made so far allinvolve a kind of creative re-ordering of theprevalent terms of practice in different fields.Equally the artists we have supported wish toconnect their practice with specific cultural historiesor with aspects of contemporary society.The variety evident even in this small list pointsto the range of viewpoints and approaches thatthis programme can accommodate.At one end of this spectrum, we have amedia artist like Ashok Sukumaran whose artworkschallenge our unquestioning use of technologyin a culture of passive consumption,while also extending the field of media art itself.At the other end is the filmmaker KamalSwaroop, who too is extending our understandingof filmmaking by engaging with students offilm and related disciplines. In this way he ishighlighting issues not just relevant to filmmaking(and its forgotten connection with literature,photography and painting), but also toarts education.In time we intend to organise meetings andseminars on themes relevant to the programme––like interdisciplinarity in the arts or the valueof artistic innovation. These would have thetwin functions of alerting us to interesting workbeing done in the arts, while helping to stimulatediscussion on approaches to arts practicethat we feel ought to have greater currency.GRANTSKamal Swaroop, MumbaiRs 2,27,500 over three monthsTowards identifying partner institutions,developing course books and film study capsules,and fixing a time schedule for a series ofworkshops to be conducted for students of film,design and creative writing. The eventual workshopswill lead to the creation of a story-boardon the life of the pioneering filmmaker,Dadasaheb Phalke. By bringing together studentsof these various disciplines, the workshopswill explore ‘the industrial mode of production’in cinema––something which Phalke exemplifiedand which the current specialisation in thearts no longer allows for.Bodhaditya Bandopadhyay, Kolkata3From Kamal Swaroop’s manuscript, The Life and Times ofDadasaheb Phalke. See also pages 5 and 20-24.

Bodhaditya Bandopadhyay, KolkataRs 5,00,000 over eighteen monthsFor the making of a non-fiction film based onthe Bengali text Hutom Pyanchar Naksa. The filmwill use the text––which documents the excesses,decadence and cultural richness of nineteenthcenturyBengali bhadralok––as an entry point toexplore the silences in the narratives of colonialismand modernity. Envisaged as a dialogue betweenthe past and the present, the film will involveextensive documentation and interpretation ofpublic life in contemporary Kolkata and of varioussubaltern art forms, revisiting places and practicesmentioned in the text.Taran Khan, Aligarh, Uttar PradeshRs 4,00,000 over two yearsFor a writer and a filmmaker to make a documentaryfilm on the significance of Sufism in thelives of mofussil communities in the Awadh regionof Uttar Pradesh. The grandfather and granddaughterpair will begin by looking at the changingperceptions of Sufism within their own familyand then branch out to explore the intersection ofreligious belief, cultural practice and social moresin the Awadh region.4Ashok Sukumaran, MumbaiRs 5,03,000 over two yearsFor the creation of a series of public installationsbased on proto-typical electronic arrangements.The intention behind these pieces is todraw attention to the pervasively ‘wired’ nature ofour environment. At the same time, by workingwith simple, almost everyday arrangements andexhibiting outcomes in public places, the projectwill also critique ‘hi-tech’ media art that operatesexclusively in galleries or laboratory-like spaces.Documentation of the installations will be madeavailable through an online archive.‘Phalke believed that theimage is not invented butis already pre-existent inthe minds of the audience.So in order tolocate the image you haveto either find the audienceor create them. Inthe end, no matter what,the audience is the authorand the producer themselves,not individuallybut collectively.’Filmmaker Kamal Swaroop onDadasaheb Phalke.

NEW PERFORMANCERarely are the performing arts in India daringin form and content, ready to portray multilingualrealities, prepared to undertake genre-defying experimentsor willing to extend beyond middle class sensibilitiesand preoccupations. The compulsions ofstate patronage, the market fixation of corporatesponsorship and the constitution of the festival circuitcollude in keeping performance within strictdisciplinary and monolingual boundaries.It was in this context that IFA’s NewPerformance programme was introduced during theyear. It provides artists with opportunities to explorenew modes of making and presenting performance,to reach beyond their own specialisation to createnew performance styles or forms, or to generate contentthat introduces spectators to new perspectivesand realities. In brief, this programme’s interest liesnot in entertainment forms but in work that challengesthose who create it and those who witness it.Three grants have been made so far. One hassupported dancer Jhuma Basak to consolidateVersedance, an unusual experiment to reintegrate literature,theatre, music and dance. The grant enabledJhuma to develop three short pieces of Versedance.She also guided students from the literature departmentsof two universities in Kolkata to use this novelperformance form to illuminate and negotiate prescribedtexts in a manner that formal classroomteaching cannot do. The enthusiasm with which thisintervention was received by both students and facultysuggests that Versedance has a promising futurein educational contexts.Pondicherry-based theatre group Adishaktireceived a grant to create a production which alsostrives to cross genres in combining theatre and shadowpuppetry, and draws on contrasting material fromdifferent cultures to contemplate the philosophicaland cultural significance of racing and competing.Finally, Sunil Shanbag’s theatre productionCotton 56, Polyester 84, on the history and culture ofMumbai’s mill workers, was developed with our supportand premiered in February 2006. The performancehas been very well received by audiences and criticsalike. Reviews celebrated the play’s authentic portrayalof chawl life, calling it “a gritty true-to-life saga”.GRANTSJhuma Basak, BangaloreRs 5,36,700 over five monthsFor the further development of a new performanceform called Versedance. Three short pieces ofdance-theatre, based on poems by Rainer MariaRilke, Amrita Pritam Singh and Jibonananda Das,will be created and performed in Kolkata. The educationalpossibilities of Versedance will also beexplored with students at two universities in the city.Adishakti Laboratory for Theatre ArtResearch, PondicherryRs 6,40,000 over six monthsFor the creation of a production on The Hareand Tortoise, which will combine theatre and shadowpuppetry. Through constant improvisations andexperiments with the puppets, a script––which looksat famous races and a few imagined ones, with charactersfrom Indian epics as also from other cultures––willbe further developed and layered.Members of the theatre group will also train underresource persons from various traditional forms todevelop the content of the production.Sunil Shanbag, MumbaiRs 4,36,000 over four monthsFor the creation of a theatre production that willbring to light the suppressed history, subculture andmarginalised lives of the mill workers of Mumbai,who lost their jobs en masse as a result of the textilestrike in the 1980s. The mill workers once exerciseda very strong influence on Mumbai’s culture, buttheir plight has largely been ignored in the ragingpublic debate and legal battles over the future developmentof the mill lands. The production will beshown to mainstream audiences as well as workingclass communities in the mill lands area and elsewhere.

‘Clearly what Cotton 56, Polyester84 appears to be offering is analternative city narrative, voicing aseldom-heard perspective of the historyof a people that have left anindelible imprint on the labourmovement of India, and of a spacewhose cultural dynamics has beeninstrumental in shaping our notionof Mumbai as a cosmopolitan city.’Scherazade Kaikobad in The Times of India(February 11, 2006).Photograph by Kartikeya Shiva.

ARTS RESEARCH ANDDOCUMENTATION8For the first time, IFA made as many as four grantsthat support research towards novels on subjects such asthe urbanisation of a refugee colony in post-partitionKolkata, the cultural history of the town of Tiruchenkodein Tamil Nadu, and the rise and fall of Carnatic music asa dynamic social form. While research towards fictionalwork has always been within the scope of this programme,it is only these recent projects that have beenable to combine an excitement about fiction writing withthe urge to address serious research questions.Meanwhile, filmmaking on the arts continued toattract a substantial number of grants. The five films wehave supported this year cover subjects like family photoalbums,the sacred Buddhist dance theatre of Chham inSikkim, and the lifestyles and dramatic practices of a 120-year old travelling theatre company from Andhra Pradesh.Support was also extended to projects that are significantas basic documentation but are also expectedto further research and practice. One grant for updatingand digitising an existing database on performancespaces in Karnataka will facilitate tours by theatregroups, while another grant for photographing andannotating an important collection of 5,500 Indianminiature paintings in a museum is expected triggernew art historical research.In the last decade, the programme has supportedover 90 projects. This represents a rich and varied corpusof work and IFA remains committed to funding researchand documentation in substantial and enlightened ways.However, arts practice and research have changed considerablyin the last ten years and we feel that the timeis right for a review of the programme. The review willrevisit the programme’s history, assess its impact andenvisage its future.This programme was started in 1995 in response toa perceived lack of support for serious arts scholarship,documentation and archival initiatives. Given the dearthof institutional spaces for research and documentation inthe arts, one of the key decisions in the early years was tosupport individuals––not just scholars but also arts practitioners––soas to trigger critical reflection in relation toarts practice, while allowing for the insertion of the personaland the subjective in the domain of research. Inaddition, we have funded documentation that hasaddressed livelihood issues, triggered advocacy andaction in the field of heritage conservation, and createdinvaluable reference points for scholarship.One of the key questions to be addressed by thereview, therefore, would be whether we should continueto remain open to various kinds of research or sharpenour focus for greater impact. The review will also determinewhether our current emphasis on supporting individualsshould be retained or sacrificed in favour of energisinginstitutional spaces for arts research. If we continueto place value on the individual researcher, however, itwould be important to envisage ways of connecting andconsolidating these discrete endeavours to create avibrant environment for enquiry and reflection.GRANTSNivedita Rao, MumbaiRs 3,01,500 over three yearsFor research into the Bharuds––allegorical versesfrom the middle of the fifteenth century attributed toSant Eknath. Compiled by the followers of the Bhaktisaint, Bharuds exist in Maharashtra as written texts, apartfrom being recited as poems, sung as bhajans and kirtans,and dramatised during the pilgrimage of vari and otherreligious occasions. Combining ethnographic study ofthe vari with the social histories of the performers, theresearch will engage with the making of this marginalisedcultural tradition and examine the differences between itsoral, written and performative forms.Perumal Murugan, Namakkal, Tamil NaduRs 3,28,500 over two yearsFor research towards the writing of a novelised historyof Tiruchenkode in Namakkal district, Tamil Nadu. Atown with an ancient history, Tiruchenkode is todaymarked by its hill temple dedicated to Murugan and

Ardhanareeswara but is also known for its vibrantmodern industry. In the course of writing a historicalaccount of Tiruchenkode, the author will documentreferences to the town in literature, folkloreand mythology, analyse the town’s design andstudy its ritual and religious life.Arghya Basu, KolkataRs 5,00,000 over two yearsFor the making of a film exploring the culturalhistory of Tibetan Buddhism in Sikkimthrough the sacred dance theatre of Chham. Thefilm will examine this ritual dance as it shapesand is shaped by its religious and cultural contexts.It will also track the mutations in its traditionalmeanings resulting from modernity andeducation. Titled The Listener’s Tale, the filmseeks to be a witness to the contradictions andcounter-forces that sustain this ancient art practice,the plurality of meanings it generates, andthe active dialogue between the consciousness ofthe performers of Chham and its spectators.Poomani, Kovilpatti, Tamil NaduRs 4,18,000 over two yearsFor preparatory research towards a novelabout the caste wars waged by the Nadar communityin Tirunelveli and Madurai districts inTamil Nadu during the nineteenth and twentiethcenturies. Based on an examination ofarchived police, court and other documents ofthe colonial administration, the novel will transformfactual history into an emotionally ‘true’portrait of those turbulent times in the life of theNadar community, which in turn fed into thelarger Indian struggle for independence.Urmila Bhirdikar, Pune, MaharashtraRs 4,25,800 over eighteen monthsFor research into the history of Marathi Farcein the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.The project will take into account the social critiqueimplicit in this form of theatre as well as studyfemale impersonation, which was a characteristicof all Marathi theatre of this period. The researchwill lead to the writing of a monograph, translationsof two Farces, and the creation of an archiveof documents on the subject.Photograph by Arghya Basu of Kanchen Dzonga as a warriordeity, Pangtoed Chham, Pang Lhabsol.

‘Lav and Kush grew up and donned theyoung form of Ram and Lakshman. Thevery same actors became older still andappeared on stage as Bhishma andDronacharya, stroking their whitebeards. As time, the biggest theatre person,drew the curtains, these actorsbecame mere memories . . . the onething that did not change was the playsthey performed.’Filmmaker K M Madhusudhanan on Surabhi, a120-year old theatre company from Andhra Pradeshand the subject of his film.Vivek Narayanan, New DelhiRs 4,97,769 over two yearsFor research towards a novel on the rise and fallof Carnatic music as a dynamic social form fromthe 1920s to the 1960s. The researcher will consultarchival material on the lives of Carnatic musiciansand the technical innovations made within themusic during this period; interview performers andcritics associated with this phase of the music; andconsult scholars working on Carnatic music. Theproject will also lead to English translations ofselected memoirs written by Carnatic musicians,which will be useful for the novel but can also bemore widely disseminated.Centre for Studies in Social Sciences Calcutta,KolkataPrincipal Investigator: Manas RayRs 3,52,000 over two yearsFor research towards two novels––in Bengali andEnglish––on the journey of a refugee colony tourbanity in post-partition Calcutta. Envisaged as aborder-crossing genre, the proposed novels willexplore the interface between ethnography, history,memoir and fiction. Dwelling on the texture of theordinary and familial history to construct an archiveof pain, anguish and hope, the novels are expected tochallenge nostalgic accounts of the afterlife of theBengal partition.Saba Dewan, New DelhiRs 4,99,000 over one yearFor post-production work on a film titled InSearch of Umrao, exploring the social and cultural historyof the tawaifs of north India. The film focuses onthe art forms associated with the tawaifs and the relationshipbetween aesthetic expression and sexualidentity. Through the story of a lost thumri sung byRasoolan Bai, whose career as a performer overlappedwith significant transitions in both the practice ofmusic and public female sexualities, the film willexamine the major shifts in the tradition’s history.Sri Nilakanteshwara Natya Seva Sangha,Heggodu, KarnatakaRs 4,50,000 over one yearFor updating and digitising a database on performancespaces in Karnataka. The updated databasewill contain information on the location ofeach space, the nature of its stage and auditorium, itsseating capacity, rental details, spatial dimensions,the types of other spaces attached to it, and theequipment available. The database will be availableto theatre groups, students of theatre and researchscholars on a CD and will eventually be uploadedonto a website.K M Madhusudhanan, New DelhiRs 5,00,000 over one yearFor the making of a film on Surabhi, a 120-year old travelling theatre company from AndhraPradesh. Envisaged as a journey with the repertorycompany, the film, titled Mayabazar, will examinethe everyday activities of these travelling actors andtheir families, rehearsals, exercises, the staging ofthe plays based on the epics and the puranas, theaudience, sets, make-up and costume design. Thefilm will also explore the traces of Parsi theatre,silent cinema from the Phalke era and the paintingsof Raja Ravi Varma in the design of the theatrecompany’s sets and costumes. 11From the play Mayabazar, performed by Surabhi.Photograph by K M Madhusudhanan.

Amitabh Chakraborthy, KolkataRs 4,58,000 over six monthsFor the production of Bishar Blues, a film onthe fakirs of Bengal, examining their music andtheir deeply spiritual everyday life as a living practiceof radical syncretism. Bishar, the deviantbranch of Islam practised largely by the lowercastes, does not sacralise the Shariat, and its historyin Bengal is replete with the assimilation ofBuddhist, Tantric and Vaishnavite traditions andpractices. In a context where Islam is increasinglyunder attack from different quarters, the filmseeks to open up a crucial debate on secularism.Sandesh Bhandare, Pune, MaharashtraRs 4,80,000 over two monthsFor the editing, designing and printing ofTamasha: Ek Rangadi Gamat, a book in Marathion the Tamasha folk theatre form. The book––one of the outcomes of an IFA-supporteddocumentation project––will contain about 250photographs, and the accompanying text willdescribe the different forms of Tamasha prevalentin Maharashtra as well as the lifestyles of itsperformers.how photographs can make for identificationand a sense of continuity with the past, howthey preserve memories, how albums are constructedon the basis of an idealised notion offamily, and how they can move from havingpurely personal meaning to taking on historicaland archival relevance.Centre for Studies in Social SciencesCalcutta,KolkataPrincipal Investigator: Gautam BhadraRs 4,78,000 over two yearsFor the publication of a book that documentsthe history of print advertising in theBengali language, analysing its various formsand modes, and the media through which itwas displayed and printed. The book will alsocatalogue commercial artists and their contributionto text and visual, and the impact of advertisingon the material culture of Bengali householdsand patterns of consumption. In addition,a visual archive of over 3,000 documents will bemade available on the Internet to trigger furtherresearch in the area.Lalbhai Dalpatbhai Institute ofIndology, AhmedabadRs 4,31,000 over sixteen monthsFor digital photography and annotation ofsome 5,500 miniature paintings largely from theJaina traditions of Gujarat and Rajasthan. Thepaintings, ranging from the seventeenth to theearly twentieth century, form an eclectic andunique collection. The biggest number is found invarious Jaina manuscripts. The project willimprove scholarly access to the miniature paintingsand facilitate preservation of the original materials.Nishtha Jain, MumbaiRs 5,00,000 over nine monthsFor the production of a film on familyphoto-albums. The film will explore personalrelationships to photo-albums. It will look at

‘The family portfolio is all aboutconventions and codes. It has nothingto do with “reality” and everythingto do with idealisation. Theprecise tilt of the head that willconvey an obedient quality in ason; the light that will add tendernessto a mother’s gaze; the hairstylethat imparts to a younger sister thepertness she must possess: it’s alldone by numbers almost.’From Nishtha Jain’s proposal to make a filmexploring the relationship between the familyalbum and personal history.Still from Nishtha Jain’s film.

14ARTS EDUCATIONOur grants in arts education had a stronginstitutional focus in 2005-06. We have decidedto discontinue our support for individual endeavoursbecause our experience suggests that educationalinitiatives in the arts need an organisationalanchor for continuity and growth. This readjustmentof our priorities coincides with a yearin which the Indian government, through theNational Curriculum Framework (2005) and theNational Council for Educational Research andTraining, has shown solid enthusiasm for invigoratingarts education within existing school andpre-university systems.A supplementary grant that we made toAttakkalari is enabling this contemporary danceorganisation to continue its valuable work ofintroducing the movement arts in Bangaloreschools. While this initiative will require supportfor years to come, there are modules withinAttakkalari’s Education Outreach Programmethat can eventually either yield profits or attractcorporate sponsorship.Our grant to the National Institute ofAdvanced Studies (NIAS), an interdisciplinaryresearch centre in Bangalore, is supporting the Artin Education segment of a larger programmecalled the District Quality Education Project(DQEP) which has been launched to enhance thequality of elementary education in Karnataka’sChamarajnagar district. The DQEP has the sanctionof the Government of Karnataka, and NIAShas enlisted the active cooperation of a range ofother government agencies to ensure that the programmecontinues on course even if politicalwinds should change.In 2005, we initiated a project, partiallysupported by the Japan Foundation, to strengthenconnections between individuals and groupsin Southeast Asia and India that have beenenriching arts pedagogy in different ways. In thepast year, we designed and helped to execute tencollaborative workshops in the fields of heritageeducation, theatre, the visual arts and dance.The project’s overall goal to create conditionsfor reflection, exchange and mutual learning wassatisfactorily met. Capacity building through theworkshops, however, was more demonstrably evidentin the Indian participants, compared to theirSoutheast Asian counterparts. This only underscoresthe fact that arts education in India is relativelyless developed and that there is need formore South-South dialogue in this area.As this initiative suggests, IFA has begun to gobeyond grant making in order to make an impactin the field. We recognise the need to manage certainsignificant projects ourselves––those which,because of their conceptual scope and geographicalsweep, fall outside the mandate, interests orcapacity of any potential grantee. IFA is currentlymanaging a project to track and publish critical

writing––in Bengali, Malayalam, Gujarati andMarathi––on the visual arts in the first half of thetwentieth century.IFA proposes to support conferences and seminarsto take advantage of the favourable climate thatnow exists for debate and discussion about the largerissues in arts education. These conferences couldalso help to consolidate learning derived from ongoinginitiatives in the field and examine possible synergiesbetween them. We are also giving thought toother ways in which we could cut across specificprojects and bridge institutions to foster curriculumdevelopment and new pedagogies, and help organisationsto build their capacity for sustained work inthis important area.GRANTSNational Institute of Advanced Studies,BangaloreRs 6,44,000 over three yearsFor the development of teaching methodsbased on the visual arts to improve the character ofclassroom interactions and enhance the quality ofelementary education in Chamarajnagar district,Karnataka. A team of educationists, researchers andart educators will build on the local community’sunderstanding of the arts and the crafts economy ofneighbourhood villages to generate a curriculumand develop new learning and teaching practices. Incollaboration with village schoolteachers, the teamwill produce a resource book and tool kit to enableteachers to use the visual arts in the classroom.Centre for Environmental Research andEducation, MumbaiRs 6,95,000 over two yearsFor the design and execution of an ‘Art-from-Waste’ project in several Mumbai schools, bringingtogether the fields of arts education and environmentaleducation. Individual ‘art-from-waste’ideas will be researched, developed and tested, andthen implemented in schools and evaluated. Theproject will culminate in the publication of ahandbook that will be distributed widely and willbe directed primarily at art teachers who workwith middle school children.Attakkalari Public Charitable Trust ofContemporary Performing Arts,BangaloreRs 13,26,700 over two yearsFor the continuing implementation of a dancein-educationprogramme in Bangalore. Movementclasses will be conducted in schools and a cadre ofdance teachers trained to facilitate the dance-ineducationwork. Funds will also be used to strengthenthe institution’s capacity to sustain this programmethrough income from other sources.PROJECTSForging Asian Collaborations in ArtsEducationRs 8,98,237 over eleven monthsFor arts education groups and professionals inSoutheast Asia and India to collaborate on workshopsin built heritage, theatre, the visual arts anddance. Apart from facilitating creative exchangeand mutual learning, these workshops are expectedto help participants build new methodologiesand strengthen their practices in arts education.Tracking Indian Visual Art HistoryRs 9,00,000 over ten monthsFor four art historians to identify, edit andannotate critical writing––in Bengali, Malayalam,Gujarati and Marathi respectively—on the visualarts in the first half of the twentieth century. Theresulting selections will be published with theaim of reintroducing the nature of the discoursesurrounding early twentieth-century Indian artto a contemporary audience.

SPECIAL GRANTSMany types of initiatives of special importanceto the arts cannot be accommodated withinthe compass of our existing grant programmes.IFA introduced special grants to giveattention to the vital need to strengthen artsinfrastructure, encourage business developmentin arts organisations, and address issues of livelihoodand sustenance. Through special grants,we can incubate and test new ideas and themesthat could in time grow to become full-fledgedgrant programmes at IFA or major initiatives forother donors to adopt. The thrust of the threespecial grants we have made so far clearly showswhere our priorities lie. For example, a grantmade in the previous year is supporting the digitisationof the past issues of the leading literarymagazine, Biblio, in order to maximise thepotential of its website to serve as an educationalresource and as an avenue for revenue generation.A more recent grant––to MukhtiyarAli––is helping young performers of Sufi music inRajasthan to piece together their musical traditionand create new opportunities for performancethat will earn them a decent livelihood.The range that could be covered by specialgrants is potentially huge, given the prevalentgaps in arts funding in the country. We thereforeplan to consolidate our own grant making inthis area by identifying a particular need in thearts that calls for special intervention and support.In the coming year, we intend to investigateif and how IFA could help strengthen thedistribution infrastructure for documentaryfilms and ‘little’ magazines in art and literature.An unrestricted category of grants alsomakes it easier for IFA to forge partnerships withfoundations, corporations and individuals withan interest in supporting the arts in ways that areoutside the ambit of our core programmes. Oneidea is to interest the Indian diaspora with rootsin Kerala in supporting the survival ofKoodiyattam, a Sanskrit theatre form, which hasbeen declared a ‘Masterpiece of the Oral andIntangible Heritage of Humanity’ byUNESCO.GRANTSMukhtiyar Ali, Pugal, RajasthanRs 2,68,250 over six monthsSupport for the reinvigoration of thesufiyana kalam of the mirs of Pugal, Rajasthan. Agroup of young musicians will be strengthened,the musical repertoire consolidated and performanceopportunities created to address theissue of livelihood for the young Sufi performers.A trust will also be set up, run by membersof the community, music scholars and enthusiasts,who will take ownership for the initiative.

Actor Vasant Rao preparing for a performance of Surabhi’sMayabazar. Photograph by K M Madhusudhanan.

SUPPORT IFASUPPORT THE ARTSLama dance during Vajrakilaya puja at Dharma Chakra Centre, Rumtek.Photographs by Arghya Basu and Manas Bhattacharya.IFA has raised funds for its work in twomain ways. Grant-making organisations like theFord Foundation and the Sir Ratan Tata Trusthave been our most significant sources of support.This has been supplemented by incomefrom arts events, for which we have been able toattract sponsorship from companies.In 2005-06, we organised fundraising performancesfeaturing eminent artists likeNaseeruddin Shah, Anoushka Shankar, JavedAkhtar, Pandit Jasraj and Pandit HariprasadChaurasia. We also earned consultancy feesthrough courses in the arts that we designed forthe Mudra Institute of Communications,Ahmedabad and the Indian Institute ofManagement, Bangalore.While we are proud of our record of grantmaking, we also recognise how much more wecould do with additional support from foundations,trusts, corporations and the general public.IFA could extend assistance to a larger number ofdeserving projects, underwrite more ambitious initiatives,and even enter new areas of grant making.We could address systemic problems that impedegrowth in the field. And we could sustain pioneeringand catalytic projects for longer periods.Appreciating our potential to extend ourreach and achieve greater impact, the FordFoundation made us an endowment grant ofUS$2 million during the year. This generouslead gift has given us the confidence to beginlaying the ground to launch a corpus fundraisingcampaign in 2007––one of the three routes wehave identified to raise funds in future years.The other two are an Individual MembershipPlan and an Arts Services Programme. The firstwill offer membership benefits to individuals whojoin the IFA’s Friend Circle and contribute a fixedamount annually for our work. The second willoffer a range of services––from guided arts toursfor the general public to arts courses for students

in institutes of professional education to arts-basedworkshops for business executives––that facilitateengagement with the arts in different ways.Till these programmes are launched, however,individuals and organisations can support IFA tostrengthen the arts in India in the following ways.You could:—Assist an arts sector (for instance, the crafts,architecture or the performing arts);—Address an issue of concern to you (such asarts management or heritage conservation);—Support the arts in a particular region inIndia;—Fund an existing grant programme (artsresearch and documentation, extending arts practice,new performance or arts education);—Support projects selected for grants in anyyear;—Provide assistance for disseminating theresults of various projects;—Support institutional development at IFA(strengthen promotional work or fundraising capacity,for example).Donations to IFA are managed by experiencedprofessionals under the guidance of the Board’sFinance Committee. The use of funds is monitoredand evaluated closely. IFA maintains transparency infund management at all points in time. Regularreports, both financial and narrative, enable donorsto keep track of the purpose for which their contributionshave been used and to what effect.Donations to IFA qualify for exemption underSection 80G of the Income Tax Act.

BOARD OF TRUSTEESPATRONSAMITAV GHOSHNANDITA PALCHOUDHURI, Arts and Crafts, KolkataChairCHITRA VISWESWARAN, Classical Dance, Chennai (Till July 23, 2005)FRANCIS WACZIARG, Commerce, Heritage Conservation, New DelhiGURCHARAN DAS, Industry, New DelhiJAITHIRTH (JERRY) RAO, Industry, Bangalore (From July 23, 2005)JITISH KALLAT, Visual Arts, Mumbai (From July 23, 2005)LALIT BHASIN, Law, New DelhiMANI NARAYANSWAMI, Civil Service, BangalorePRIYA PAUL, Industry, New DelhiN. S. RAGHAVAN, Industry, Bangalore (From July 23, 2005)RASHMI PODDAR, Art History, Aesthetics, MumbaiRAVI NEDUNGADI, Finance, Bangalore (From July 23, 2005)ROMI KHOSLA, Architecture, New DelhiSHYAM BENEGAL, Cinema, MumbaiSIMONE NTATA, Industry, MumbaiMVSUBBIAH, Industry, ChennaiUSTAD AMJAD ALI KHANEBRAHIM ALKAZIPADMABHUSHAN SRI LALGUDI GJAYARAMANMRINALINI SARABHAINASEERUDDIN SHAHSHEKHAR KAPURSYED HAIDER RAZARAJA SYED MUZAFFAR ALISTAFFAnmol VellaniEXECUTIVE DIRECTORAnjum HasanPROGRAMME EXECUTIVEGeorge JosePROGRAMME EXECUTIVE (Till May 31, 2005)Madhuban MitraPROGRAMME EXECUTIVESanjay IyerPROGRAMME EXECUTIVE (From May 23, 2005)Arundhati GhoshMANAGER: RESOURCE MOBILISATIONAgnelo VijayanMANAGER: EVENTS AND PR (From May 2, 2005)T C JnanashekarMANAGER: MANAGEMENT SERVICESC Suresh KumarCOORDINATOR: MANAGEMENT SERVICESJoyce GonsalvesINFORMATION OFFICERAparna KolarPROGRAMME ASSOCIATESrimathaPROGRAMME ASSOCIATEN Anitha BaiFRONT OFFICE ASSISTANT

We acknowledge with gratitude the support ofThe Ford FoundationSir Ratan Tata TrustThe Rockefeller FoundationThe Japan FoundationAnd we thank the companies that sponsored our fundraisers during the year:Bharti Airtel LtdING Vysya BankHindustan Lever LtdSpice Telecom3M India LtdIBM Global ServicesMonster.com India Pvt LtdThe Park HotelsTaj Hotels Resorts and PalacesNeemrana HotelsKingfisher AirlinesVISUALS: Courtesy IFA grantees.COVER: Art from waste produced by a school student in Mumbai.ENDPAPERS: Details of a mural at the Dharma Chakra Centre, Rumtek (front)and a Dharmapala, Rabtenling monastery, Sikkim (back). Photographs by Arghya Basu.DESIGN: Courtesy Sunandini Banerjee, The Seagull Foundation for the Arts, Kolkata.PRINTED BY: Ancient Future, Bangalore