India Foundation for the Arts (IFA) is a national,

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

, the grantmaking organisation that supports the practice, research and education in the arts in India. Established as a public trust in 1993, IFA is headquartered in

Bangalore Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...

. Its founder-director,

Anmol Vellani India Foundation for the Arts (IFA) is a national, non-profit, the grantmaking organisation that supports the practice, research and education in the arts in India. Established as a public trust in 1993, IFA is headquartered in Bangalore. Its fo ...

previously worked for the

Ford Foundation The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a US$25,000 gift from Edsel Ford. By 1947, after the death ...

. IFA's mission is to enrich the arts in India, by providing support for innovative projects and capacity building across all the arts.

Management

The Founder Director, Anmol Vellani, is a professional in arts management and organised

philanthropy Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives, for the Public good (economics), public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private goo ...

. Our current Executive Director, Arundhati Ghosh is an internationally recognised professional in the arts and organised philanthropy. The staff at IFA comes with diverse backgrounds and experiences and is encouraged to engage with and respond to the changing needs and aspirations of the field. The

board of trustees A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organiz ...

bring to their work considerable experience in the arts and humanities, industry, finance, public affairs, communication and law. They share a common passion for the enrichment of arts and culture.

Programmes

The grant programmes of IFA respond to demand for assistance, while also giving encouragement to new perspectives and directions in the arts. IFA has made over 450 grants across states. The Arts Research programme supports scholars, researchers, and practitioners to undertake research into the histories and expressions of artistic practices in India. It seeks to foster wider perspectives, understandings, interpretations and engagements in the arts. The Arts Education programme places the school teacher at the centre of its work and supports artists through grants, towards arts-based education in Government Schools in Karnataka. It maintains a continuous dialogue with the

National Council of Educational Research and Training The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) is an autonomous organisation of the Government of India which was established in 1961 as a literary, scientific and charitable Society under the Societies Registration Act. Its head ...

, the Directorate of Public Instruction, Karnataka, the Department of State Education, Research and Training, Karnataka, and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, to intensify its capacity building programme. The Arts Practice programme supports critical practice in the arts. It encourages practitioners working across artistic disciplines to question existing notions through their practice. The programme seeks to establish a culture where arts practice is constantly being shaped and articulated through experimentation, critique and dialogue. The Archival and Museum Fellowships support practitioners and researchers to activate the collections in

archive An archive is an accumulation of historical records or materials – in any medium – or the physical facility in which they are located. Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual or ...

s and

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...

s through curatorial and artistic interventions. The fellowships enable collections to come alive and be made accessible to a large public, with the hope that this engagement will allow museums and archives, to function less as repositories and more as sites that influence discourse, and creativity in the arts.

Board of Trustees

* Rathi Vinay Jha, ''Civil Service, Delhi'' is the Chairperson * Ashoke Chatterjee, ''Humanities and Education'', ''Ahmedabad'' *

Bina Paul Bina Paul (born January 28, 1961), also known by her married name Bina Paul Venugopal, is an Indian film editor who works mainly in Malayalam-language films. A graduate of the University of Delhi, she completed a course on film editing from the ...

, ''Cinema'', ''Bangalore'' * Chiranjiv Singh, ''Civil Service, Bangalore'' *

Githa Hariharan Githa Hariharan (born 1954) is an Indian writer and editor based in New Delhi. Her first novel, ''The Thousand Faces of Night'', won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for the best first novel in 1993. Her other works include the short story coll ...

, ''Literature,'' ''New Delhi'' * Ishaat Hussain, ''Industry,'' ''Mumbai'' * Kiran Nadar, ''Arts and Education, New Delhi'' * Lalit Bhasin, ''Law, New Delhi'' *

Pramit Jhaveri Pramit Jhaveri is an Indian banker and ex-CEO of Citi. He served as Citi’s India CEO from 2010 to 2019 and is the longest-serving India chief of the bank. Prior to his role as CEO, Pramit set up Citi’s investment banking business in India. I ...

, ''Finance'', ''Mumbai'' *

Priya Paul Priya Paul (born 1967) is an Indian businesswoman, the chairperson of Apeejay Surrendra Park Hotels, a subsidiary of the Apeejay Surrendra Group, which operates The Park Hotels chain of hotels. Career She joined the company after finishing her ...

, ''Industry, New Delhi'' *

Aman Nath Aman Nath (born 1951) is an Indian writer, hotelier, and architectural restorer. He is the co-founder and co-chairman of the Neemrana Hotels chain, along with Francis Wacziarg. Both are today credited for pioneering the heritage hotels movemen ...

, ''Industry, New Delhi'' * Saajan Poovayya, ''Law, Bangalore'' *

Sheba Chhachhi Sheba Chhachhi is a photographer, women's rights activist, writer, film-maker and an installation artist. She is based in New Delhi and has exhibited her works widely in India and internationally. Issues centring on women and impact of urban t ...

, ''Visual Arts, New Delhi'' * Shubha Mudgal, ''Music, New Delhi''

Patrons

Amitav Ghosh, Ebrahim Alkazi, Naseeruddin Shah, Shekhar Kapur, Shyam Benegal and Ustad Amjad Ali Khan

External links

IFA website

''All the world's a stage, quite literally'', HT Brunch, 27 July 2014

''For the sense of seamless perspective'', The Hindu, 23 July 2014
* http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/news/art-comes-alive-on-bangalore-s-streets/325708 ''Art Comes Alive on Bangalore's Streets'', NDTV, 14 and 15 July 2014 *http://www.livemint.com/Leisure/J5D60o7E2vLURRgDoC2ZMJ/Why-we-dont-value-our-arts-enough.html ''Why we don’t value our arts enough'', 17 August 2013
''Chronicles of Bangalore retold'', 6 June 2014

''Guerrilla Art'', Business Standard, 8 March 2014

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:India Foundation For The Arts Arts organisations based in India Foundations based in India Non-profit organisations based in India Organisations based in Bangalore Arts organizations established in 1993 Arts foundations based in Asia 1993 establishments in Karnataka