India Foundation for the Arts awards four new grants to people / organisations from Maharashtra

Mumbai: India Foundation for the Arts (IFA), an independent national grant making organisation in the field of arts, has announced four new grants from Maharashtra under its Arts Research and Documentation Programme, 2004. These are among 16 new grants awarded recently under this programme to individuals and institutions across the country.

The Maharashtra grants have been given to Nishtha Jain, Anjali Panjabi, Shri Siddheshwar Shikshan Mandal and PUKAR (Partners for Urban Knowledge, Action and Research).

Nishtha Jain's project is concerned with how photographs occupy an intriguing middle ground between truth and fiction. The proposed film seeks to deconstruct the photographs in terms of cultural influences, social aspirations and individual fantasies.

Anjali Panjabi will produce a film that explores the stories and storytelling about Mirabai. The film seeks to map the alternative texts and performances that reconstruct the mainstream cultural icon Mirabai, opening up issues of caste and transgression to scrutiny.

Shri Siddheshwar Shikshan Mandal, will undertake the documentation of heritage buildings in Solapur, a unique thousand year old architectural heritage in Maharashtra, on which the rulers of the Deccan Sultanates, the Mughals, the Marathas and the British have left their stamp. The documentation is likely to form the basis of a future exhibition as well as enable the conservation of Solapur's architectural heritage.

PUKAR will document literary activity in nine different languages spoken in Mumbai. The resulting database would facilitate further translations between these languages and function as a source of information about Mumbai's cultural cosmopolitan nature and multi-lingual ethos.

Under its Arts Research and Documentation programme, IFA supports research aimed at strengthening the practice and theoretical basis of the arts, funds documentation towards bringing valuable cultural material into public domain and also offers grants for preparatory research towards projects like films, novels, exhibitions or performances.