FICA’s Emerging Artist Award, which has previously focused on identifying and supporting an individual artist from India, is now re-envisioned as Emerging Artists Award (EAA+), a collective forum to mentor and engage with a set of 10 young practitioners offering them a financial grant (Rs 100,000 for each recipient). The platform carries forward the mentorship and exhibitory aspects of our earlier editions by earmarking two workshops for the selected participants, and developing an open-ended dissemination forum at the end of the grant period that could take the form of publication, exhibition or website.   

The pilot programme for this expanded platform was initiated in 2020, when FICA and MMF collaborated to include more young practitioners under the banner of the Emerging Artist Award. With this in mind, the Extended Support Platform was established in 2020 to support a group of 20 promising artists apart from the main recipients of the grant. This support was extended with the intention of encouraging and supporting a larger base of young Indian artists, a necessity that seemed particularly critical to address during the pandemic.*

The possibilities of the collective nature of the EAA+ forum will allow us to extend grant-making into a more prolonged and nuanced engagement with the practitioners and their artistic enquiries, permitting us to sustain different ways of presenting and circulating the current moment of art practice and its diversities. The orientation of the EAA+ forum remains directed towards encouraging a mode of thinking geared towards fostering communities and collectivities between artists, and between artists and art organisations in India, to help us better visualise the potencies of peer-led networks.

About our collaborators:

The Mrinalini Mukherjee Foundation was established in December 2015 in accordance with the vision of the acclaimed artist the late Mrinalini Mukherjee to carry forth the legacy of the Mukherjee family which include her parents Benode Behari Mukherjee and Leela Mukherjee. The contribution of the Mukherjees to the development of contemporary art in the country has few parallels. MMF’s primary aim is to preserve and promote the legacy of this unique family through exhibitions, research initiatives, publications and films. MMF is also committed to developing systems of support for art practitioners, educators, and art institutions, encouraging and augmenting a range of programmes, practices and processes in the Indian context.

Over the years, through the aegis of the Emerging Artist Award platform, FICA collaborated with several cultural organisations and residency spaces to create a mentored environment for young talent to be nurtured in their creative pursuits. Our collaborative efforts have included partners like Sanskriti Foundation, New Delhi (2007), Montalvo Art Foundation, California (2008 – 2009), Pro Helvetia Swiss Arts Council (2010 – 2020) for the residency programmes as well as Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi that has hosted and supported the exhibition platform for each of our EAA awardees. The award has also entailed the keen insights and expertise of many independent jury members who helped shape its scope and potential. Some our juries from the past 3 - 4 years have included artists, curators and scholars like Reena Saini Kallat, Sanchayan Ghosh, Benitha Perciyal, Akshay Pathak, Rohini Devasher, Manisha Parekh, Rakhi Peswani, Shirana Shahbazi, Latika Gupta, Shukla Sawant, Sheila Makhijani, Vasudha Thozhur, Santhosh S, Sumedh Rajendran, Sonia Khurana.