Himalayan Fellowship for Creative Practitioners – Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art (FICA)

Outlining the scope of the Fellowship

The Western and Eastern Himalayan regions are incredibly rich terrains in terms of their topography, ecology, demographics, and cultural heritage. Much like other climate zones in the subcontinent, these areas are facing challenges owing to fragile ecosystems, their vulnerability to climate change, large-scale deforestation, unsustainable tourism, cultural displacement, and a lack of sensitive approaches to conserving the diversity that exists across these landscapes.

The Himalayan Fellowship invites creative practitioners to respond to the cultural and ecological urgencies in the Himalayan region, with a particular focus on themes of traditional cultural and knowledge systems, heritage and identity, questions of ecology and biodiversity, environmental justice, sustainability, climate change and natural resources. The Fellowship is outlined as an attempt to extend systems of support to creative practitioners who are working in these regions, responding to such urgencies, developing critical methodologies and highlighting alternative conservation efforts directed at awareness building, advocacy, documentation and community engagement.

The Fellowship is open to artists and creative practitioners—individuals and collectives—from the Indian Himalayan Region. Through the aegis of this Fellowship, we are keen to work with and foreground sustainable and ecologically-grounded practices and methodologies that espouse long-term modes of collaboration with people and landscapes that are site-specific, community-oriented, and have strong creative and pedagogic outcomes that can be further activated and disseminated.

Himalayan-specific models of sustainable and ecologically grounded practices are the need of the hour, whether within industries such as tourism or within methods of sustaining local resources livelihoods. As a platform encouraging innovative and experimental approaches to artmaking, this Fellowship seeks to spotlight issues related to ecology and intangible cultural heritage, forming closer associations and deep understanding of local cultural and natural resources. Pushing the boundaries of how community engagement is construed, the Fellowship will also be an opportunity for creative practitioners from the region to present their collaborations with local communities and organizations on a more expanded stage, mapping new ways of responding to the needs and concerns of these stakeholders. It hopes to facilitate the exchange of ideas and practices between artists, resource persons, conservationists, and communities, in order to foster, build and strengthen collaborations between these groups and networks, marking a greater investment in the conservation and preservation of resources in and across the Himalayas.

Outlined below are some themes that fall under the scope of this Fellowship, listed to help clarify the ambit of the Fellowship. Please note that these are not watertight categories; rather, they serve as freely overlapping areas of focus for applicants to expand on further in their proposal. Proposed projects can extend across any/all the following themes.

1. Traditional knowledge, cultural heritage and identity: Exploring the themes of traditional knowledge and practices in the Himalayas, including the ways in which these practices are interconnected with local ecosystems and landscapes, and the challenges faced by these communities in maintaining their cultural heritage in the face of environmental change. This could include projects undertaking documentation of indigenous knowledge systems, traditional cultural practices and their respective communities, highlighting Traditional Ecological Knowledge, sacred landscapes, oral histories and material cultures.

2. Sustainability and resilience: Focusing on the ways in which communities are building more sustainable and resilient systems through local livelihoods and infrastructures, the systems and structures that uphold and preserve certain ways of life, while creating space for adaptation and change. This could include projects that look at the role of cultural practices in in the context of environmental change and equitable futures, responsible tourism and waste management; how sustainability can be understood with regard to mass production and traditional craftsmanship, and how collective/community-led initiatives are mapping and revitalising sustainable ways of living.

3. Climate change and adaptability: The cultural and social impacts of climate change on ecosystems, and how projects and practitioners are developing creative alternate pedagogies of awareness-building around land and water use; questions of environmental justice and advocacy for marginalised groups; how traditional cultural practices are being transformed in response to changing environmental conditions; the role of community-led initiatives in mitigating the effects of climate change.

4. Ecosystems and biodiversity: Looking at relationships between humans and the natural environment, with a focus on the role of traditional practices in promoting biodiversity and ecological conservation, landscape ecology and the impacts of urbanisation in these regions; modes of safeguarding in the context of rapid urbanisation, large-scale migration, industrialisation and environmental change; exploring region-specific, community-specific ways of disseminating resources.

Fellowship Ambit & Funding

The Fellowship will support the Fellows with the development of their proposed projects through aspects of research, production, dissemination and other routes of mobilisation as required. It will entail financial support as outlined by the grant amount that will be supplemented by a strong mentorship programme, connecting them to larger networks in the region. The grant will facilitate interactions and site visits for the participants with mentors and resource persons as required by the projects, separate to the provided budget.

The Fellowship period will be one year, with a grant amount of up to Rs. Three Lakh made available to each project.

Eligibility Criteria

• The Himalayan Fellowship is open to creative practitioners working across any and all mediums: painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, filmmaking, architecture, sound and music, design, crafts, installations, performance, literature and oral history.

• Open to individuals and collectives who are from the Indian Himalayan Region, spread across 13 Indian States/Union Territories (namely Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura, Assam and West Bengal). Please note that the Fellowship is open only to creative practitioners located and working in the Himalayan regions of the states mentioned above.

• Projects should be specifically inclined towards exploring intersections between intangible cultural heritage and questions relating to ecology and the environment in any of these regions mentioned above.

• The Fellowship will entail hybrid forms of engagement through workshops and site-visits. Selected applicants will be expected to be present for the same.

Submitting your application

Deadline for applications: 15 July 2023

Application Requirements:

A single PDF containing:

1. An updated portfolio of your individual or collective practice with not more than 20 ongoing and older projects. Please include images and links to video files or other supporting material within this PDF itself.

2. A detailed project proposal with the following:
   a) Outline of proposed area of work/research and how it relates to the aegis of the grant.
   b) Details on community involvement, stakeholders and collaborators (if any)
   c) Images and videos wherever applicable (Videos to be included within the PDF as links)

3. Updated CV and bio. If applying as a collective, please send CVs and bios for all members of the collective.

Submission Procedure

Please upload the single PDF to the Google Form .

(Please note that applications are to be submitted only via the Google Form. Applications sent via email or courier will not be considered.)

Click here to know more and apply