FICA’s Support Programmes are aimed at identifying and encouraging Indian artists, art historians, curators and researchers, via grants, awards and residency opportunities. Over the years, our systems of support have come to be recognised as markers of excellence in the field of contemporary visual arts in India. FICA has supported over 45 artists and their projects over the last 13 years. These have been made possible through active and consistent collaborations with some of the best arts and educational institutions in the world as well as the support of individual patrons who share our vision. These include Pro Helvetia - the Swiss Arts Council, Goldsmiths University, Inlaks Shivdasani Foundation, Raza Foundation, Vadehra Art Gallery, and Yashodhara Dalmia, ‘The Makers’, and MASH - My Art Shalini Passi.
As a key part of our work, FICA’s Grants and Awards have been instrumental in bringing forth critical new projects across a range of themes in contemporary art, research, and writing. Taking their role as that of sustained support and continuous dialogue with sets of practitioners, FICA has strived to make material and intellectual results of these grant processes accessible through our other platforms such as exhibitions, workshops, and more, to allow for exchange. This continuous process leads to the development of public programmes, to further the dissemination and exchange of ideas.
Grants and Awards are a crucial aspect of FICA’s work in the field of art practice(s), and we have also encouraged a variety of outcomes, towards the development of public-oriented projects, besides those that directly focus on public, community and topological understandings of space. These have led to the development of various kinds of educational programmes and spaces of encounter, translating and making available the many aspects of contemporary art practices to different audiences.
