2014-2015

For a research-based experience of exploring history for a higher primary school, by conducting one such study of a local chieftain by the name of Shivappa Nayaka in Shivamogga district, Karnataka.

For exploring the local Yakshagana form to help develop language and oratory skills among higher primary school students.

For introducing local art forms such as Kolata and Tatva Pada to students in lower primary school to explore rhythmic patterns of poetry.

This Grant was Terminated by IFA and the Grantee is ineligible to apply to IFA in the future.

For working with the cultural history archive at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences Calcutta (CSSSC) which contains a wide variety of visual materials from eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Bengal that includes books, journals, popular paintings, prints, posters, hoardings, advertisements and commercial art productions. Sujaan will trace the two-century-old history of tourism in Calcutta and focus on the ways in which the city has been represented by and for the ‘outsider’. The outcome could take various forms such as a curated guided tour, a guidebook, and a digital map that represents the different histories of Calcutta’s heritage.

For working with the cultural history archive at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences Calcutta (CSSSC) which contains a wide variety of visual materials from eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Bengal that includes books, journals, popular paintings, prints, posters, hoardings, advertisements and commercial art productions. Vishwajyoti will visually reinterpret some of the moral science textbooks from nineteenth-century India with the visuals and popular iconography of that era to form a new body of work.

For working with the cultural history archive at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences Calcutta (CSSSC) which contains a wide variety of visual materials from eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Bengal that includes books, journals, popular paintings, prints, posters, hoardings, advertisements and commercial art productions. Afrah’s research will culminate in a series of short videos that will portray stories of resistance of women in the nineteenth century, loosely themed around ‘Women and Impudence/Cheeky Girls’.

For the creation of a theatrical production that explores the position of women, roles of women characters and streevesha (female impersonation) within the male-dominated practice of Yakshagana. Drawing from research and personal experience, the performance imagines a reversal of roles in the popular Yakshagana plot of Draupadi Vastrapaharana, thereby exploring the conflicts around tradition, gender, power and morality inherent in the form. The performance is scheduled to premiere in Udupi in November 2015.

For a series of workshop processes conducted by a theatre group to explore and create a methodology of physical alphabets for theatre. The workshops will experiment with nonverbal explorations of textual themes and integrate them in the process of theatre-making. The outcome will be a detailed documentation of the processes that includes everyday rehearsal notes, photographs and audio-visual material.

For a series of workshops with the multiethnic communities of the eastern Himalayan regions of Sikkim and northern parts of West Bengal. It is a collaborative and multidisciplinary project that involves local music, myths and traditions dealt with in a manner that pushes the artistic boundaries of cinema. Described as an ‘interdependent cinema project’, the workshops will lead to a film, a graphic novel, a music album and finally a documentary installation exhibition.

For working with students at the Kuvempu Centenary Government Higher Primary School in Chikkaballapur District to create a local integrated workbook on language and mathematics drawing from the children’s everyday life experiences.