IFA has a New Executive Director from June 2023: Menaka Rodriguez

The journey of the India Foundation for the Arts (IFA) over the past three decades has been enriched by your solidarity, generosity and camaraderie. We write to you today to share some good news.

In May 2022, we shared with you that after 22 years of working and learning at IFA, Arundhati Ghosh will be leaving in May 2023. The Board of Trustees put in place a rigorous process for the selection of the next Executive Director through an open call that invited external and internal candidates. We received 87 applications from all over the country.

After meticulous scrutiny and several rounds of interviews, we are delighted to announce that Menaka Rodriguez has been selected by the Board of Trustees as the next Executive Director at IFA.

Menaka has been with IFA since 2007, when she joined to set up the individual giving programme, and has grown over the past 15 years across various roles to lead the Resource Mobilisation and Outreach team, while also serving as a co-facilitator for SMART (Strategic Management in the Art of Theatre) and managing a part of the Project 560 programme. She has postgraduate degrees in Archaeology and Indian History from the Deccan College Post Graduate and Research Institute, Pune, and in Arts Administration from the University of New Orleans, United States. She has worked on projects for several cultural institutions including INTACH; Vasant J Sheth Memorial Foundation; Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Poland; Society for South Asian Studies, UK; and Afghan Family Guidance Association (AFGA). She has served on the Faculty of Archaeology and Museum Studies at Madras Christian College, Chennai; was an ARThinkSouthAsia (ATSA) Fellow in 2012-13 and selected for the Arts Leaders Programme supported by the Australia Council for the Arts for 2017-18. She was also  a participant in the ATSA Train the Trainer programme, aimed at creating a cohort of art management trainers in the South Asian region. Her interests include reading, travelling, jazz, sculpture, and the performing arts.

Menaka has represented IFA at diverse forums and panels on the arts, grantmaking, fundraising, and philanthropy. With close to two decades of experience in marketing, fundraising and business and programmatic development for a range of arts organisations including museums, arts festivals, theatre companies and art councils, she is ready to take on this role. She will begin her term as the Executive Director at IFA from June 01, 2023 after two months as Executive Director Designate.

We are excited to have Menaka take on this new challenge and hope you will continue to support and help her and IFA in the years to come.