Sustaina India Fellowships in 2023

Applications Due June 5, 2023

The Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) is one of Asia’s leading not-for-profit policy research institutions. The Council uses data, integrated analysis, and strategic outreach to explain – and change – the use, reuse, and misuse of resources. The Council addresses pressing global challenges through an integrated and internationally focused approach. It prides itself on the independence of its high-quality research, develops partnerships with public and private institutions, and engages with the wider public. CEEW once again featured extensively across nine categories in the ‘2019 Global Go To Think Tank Index Report’, including being ranked as South Asia’s top think tank (15th globally) with an annual operating budget of less than USD 5 million for the seventh year in a row.

Thukral and Tagra are a Delhi-based artist duo comprising Jiten Thukral (b. 1976, Jalandhar, Punjab) and Sumir Tagra (b. 1979, New Delhi). Driven by the artistic methodologies of painting, gaming, archiving, and publishing, their multifaceted studio practice reflects the scope of engagement in the cultural and political landscape of India and the world. While their early career work dealt with the intricacies of consumer culture globally, their recent interest in ecology and climate change is a revisiting of their family histories of migration and farming in the Indian state of Punjab.

Through and beyond their studio practice, Thukral & Tagra create new formats of public engagement and attempt to expand the threshold of what art can do. These also include the non-profit Foundation that addresses ongoing social issues through education and art, their collaborative learning lab Pollinator that fosters cross-pollinations across creative fields, and the new publishing and distribution platform andArchive that reconfigures the potential of the print and the archive. Further, their immersive and multi-modal sensory installations offer seamless accessibility to audiences from varied backgrounds and approaches, breaking through the spectatorial protocols of “high art.”

India now has its first-of-its-kind art and climate initiative that will integrate and interact with science and policymaking. Thukral and Tagra (T&T) and the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) are pleased to announce an open call for creators to participate in Sustaina India. In its first edition, the initiative will support at least three young and emerging creators over five months to realise impact driven projects that directly contribute to conversations around climate action and sustainability. The creators will have the opportunity to present their work at a 10-14 day-long exhibition in New Delhi in early 2024.

Sustaina India is pleased to announce Sustaina Fellowships for Collective Climate Action

India now has its first-of-its-kind art and climate initiative that will integrate and interact with science and policy-making. Thukral and Tagra (T&T) and the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) are pleased to announce an open call for creators to participate in Sustaina India. In its first edition, the initiative will support at least three young and emerging creators over five months to realise impact-driven projects that directly contribute to conversations around climate action and sustainability. The creators will have the opportunity to present their work at a 10-14 day-long exhibition in New Delhi in early 2024.

Key Objectives

As scientific evidence about the alarming impacts of climate change keep emerging, we face the need to reimagine habitable futures.
Sustaina India stems from this urgency to catalyse pollinations across art, science and policy-making through annual fellowships, exhibitions and public programmes.
Sustaina India mobilises creators to integrate decentralised climate awareness and sustainability conversations into the cultural fabric of India and beyond.

Application Guidelines

Who can apply: Young and emerging creators currently residing in India.

Medium: While we have no restriction on the medium, the creators should use materials that have limited or no carbon footprint.

Focus Areas: The creators are encouraged to direct their proposal towards our core focus areas of clean energy transition, circular economy, climate adaptation, sustainable cities, and sustainable lifestyles.

What we offer:

Mentorship from artist duo Thukral and Tagra, curator Srinivas Aditya Mopidevi, and many other established practitioners in the field of art.
Awareness workshops led by environmental experts to understand the issues of climate and sustainability and access to resources of CEEW — one of Asia’s leading public policy think tanks.
Production budget to each fellow of INR 2 lakh to create a new project.
Honorarium of INR 1 lakh to each fellow for their contributions.
Opportunity to present the project at Sustaina India’s inaugural exhibition in New Delhi in February 2024.

Selection process: The applications will be reviewed by the core team of Sustaina India along with a jury of experts and advisors from the fields of art and environment. The selected fellows will be announced by the end of June 2023.

Sustaina India is curated by Jiten Thukral, Sumir Tagra, and Srinivas Aditya Mopidevi (pollinator.io) in collaboration with CEEW.

For further questions about the fellowships, write to artforsustainability@gmail.com

LINK TO THE APPLICATION FORM

For more details, visit: here