India Foundation for the Arts

India Foundation for the Arts (IFA) is an independent, non-profit cultural organization established as a public trust in 1993. Based in Bengaluru, it supports artistic, scholarly, educational, archival, and museum-related work across India through grants, project development, implementation support, and institutional collaboration. Its remit extends across many forms of cultural expression rather than being limited to a single art form. Projects may involve performance, visual culture, literature, history, education, community engagement, archives, museums, or hybrid and experimental practices. IFA has placed particular emphasis on work in Indian languages other than English and on projects that connect artistic practice with research, public life, and local communities. The organization was founded by Anmol Vellani, an arts-management and philanthropy professional who had previously worked with the Ford Foundation. Vellani served as IFA's executive director until 2013, while continuing to be identified as its founding director. Arundhati Ghosh succeeded him as executive director, and Menaka Rodriguez assumed the position in June 2023. IFA is governed by a Board of Trustees, which is responsible for institutional stewardship, policy, long-term sustainability, and the definition of program priorities. IFA's work is organized through five principal programs. Arts Research supports scholars, researchers, and practitioners investigating histories, traditions, ideas, and forms of artistic practice in India. Arts Practice provides opportunities for artists to test new processes, materials, forms, audiences, and relationships with communities. Arts Education uses engagement with the arts to encourage lifelong learning; its later work included Kali-Kalisu, an arts-based teacher-training initiative for government-school teachers in Karnataka. The Archives and Museums program encourages creative and critical engagement with archival and museum collections and seeks to make these institutions more active spaces for public discussion. Project 560 focuses specifically on Bengaluru, encouraging artists, researchers, institutions, neighborhoods, and citizens to examine the city's histories, cultures, spaces, and transformations. In 2018, IFA established the IFA Archive as a dedicated repository for material generated by or associated with its supported projects. The archive includes digital materials from more than 500 projects and physical collections from more than 700 projects. Access is available by appointment in Bengaluru, giving researchers and practitioners an additional route into the history of contemporary cultural production supported by the foundation. IFA describes its role less as a conventional arts presenter than as a funder, enabler, and long-term partner for cultural work. Its project model accommodates cross-disciplinary activity, practices outside established artistic categories, and new ways of producing or presenting art. Over its history, the organization has supported more than 950 projects. Its public-facing activities have included research initiatives, exhibitions, teacher development, heritage projects, archive programs, city-based cultural work, and events that bring supported projects into wider circulation. The organization remains active as an Indian cultural institution, although detailed current financial, staffing, and project-level information is not established in the supplied sources.

India Foundation for the Arts was constituted as a public trust in 1993 with the aim of strengthening the conditions in which artistic and cultural work could be created, researched, taught, preserved, and encountered in India. Its founding director, Anmol Vellani, brought experience in arts management and organized philanthropy, including earlier work with the Ford Foundation. From the beginning, IFA adopted a broad cultural mandate rather than concentrating on one medium or a narrow definition of the arts. This enabled it to support projects involving performance, visual culture, literature, historical research, education, archives, museums, community practice, and combinations of these areas. The foundation's grantmaking and project-support model developed around the needs of practitioners and institutions. Its programs have addressed established demand for support while also creating opportunities for artists and researchers to pursue unfamiliar processes, new connections, and forms of public engagement. IFA has been particularly receptive to work that crosses disciplinary boundaries, challenges conventional categories, or develops in Indian languages other than English. The organization has consequently operated both as a funding body and as a participant in the development of India's wider cultural infrastructure. Arts Education became one of IFA's established areas of work in the 1998–99 period. The program sought to support lifelong learning through sustained engagement with the arts. A review conducted in 2008–09 contributed to the development of Kali-Kalisu, an arts-based teacher-training program for government-school teachers across Karnataka. IFA has worked with education institutions and government bodies, including the National Council of Educational Research and Training, the Directorate of Public Instruction in Karnataka, and the Department of State Education, Research and Training in Karnataka, to strengthen capacity-building in arts education. The organization's other programs developed distinct but related approaches. Arts Research supports investigations into the histories, practices, and meanings of artistic expression in India. Arts Practice supports artists who want to extend their methods, question accepted conventions, experiment with content and form, or create new relationships among space, audiences, and communities. Archives and Museums encourages practitioners and researchers to work with collections in critical and imaginative ways, while also treating archives and museums as sites of dialogue rather than merely storage. Project 560, named after the first three digits of Bengaluru's postal code, focuses on the city's neighborhoods, histories, institutions, and everyday cultural life through collaborations among artists, scholars, citizens, and organizations. A major institutional development came in 2018 with the creation of the IFA Archive. The repository was established to preserve documentation and other materials associated with the foundation's supported projects. It contains digital material from more than 500 projects and physical collections from more than 700 projects, with access available by appointment in Bengaluru. The archive extends IFA's role beyond the initial funding of projects by helping retain records through which future researchers, artists, and members of the public can study India's recent cultural work. Leadership has changed while the foundation's broad mission has remained continuous. Vellani served as executive director until 2013, after which Arundhati Ghosh held the role. Menaka Rodriguez became executive director in June 2023. Governance is vested in a Board of Trustees whose members bring experience in civil service, language and literature, advertising, industry, history, crafts, dance, finance, law, and related fields. The board is responsible for policies, program goals, institutional growth, and sustainability. Across its history, IFA has supported more than 950 projects. These have included research programs, artistic experiments, arts education initiatives, archive and museum work, heritage projects, exhibitions, public events, and city-based cultural investigations. The foundation's continuing significance lies in its intermediary role: it connects resources and expertise with artists, scholars, educators, institutions, and communities while creating a record of the work it helps make possible.

1. 2023Menaka Rodriguez becomes Executive Director

   Menaka Rodriguez assumed the executive director role in June 2023.

   Source
2. 2018IFA Archive established

   IFA created a dedicated archive to preserve digital and physical materials generated by or connected with its supported projects.

   Source
3. 2013Executive leadership transition

   Arundhati Ghosh succeeded Anmol Vellani as executive director, while Vellani continued to be identified as IFA's founding director.

   Source
4. 2009Arts Education review leads to expanded teacher training

   A review in 2008–09 helped shape Kali-Kalisu, an arts-based training initiative for government-school teachers in Karnataka.

   Source
5. 1998Arts Education program begins

   IFA commenced its Arts Education program during the 1998–99 period to encourage lifelong learning through engagement with the arts.

   Source
6. 1993Established as a public trust

   India Foundation for the Arts was established in India as an independent non-profit public trust, with Anmol Vellani as its founding director.

   Source

An independent, field-building cultural foundation that supports experimentation, research, education, archives, museums, and public engagement in the arts across India.

• Arts ResearchResearch funding

  Arts Research supports scholars, researchers, and practitioners examining histories, practices, and expressions of artistic and cultural life in India. The program is intended to produce broader and more varied ways of understanding the arts, including work that brings overlooked histories, regional practices, and alternative interpretations into public and scholarly discussion.

• Arts PracticeArtist development and project support

  Arts Practice enables artists to extend their existing practices in new directions. Supported work may challenge established conventions, experiment with materials or media, explore new forms of audience and community engagement, or develop unfamiliar relationships with space and presentation. The program is designed around experimentation rather than a single artistic discipline.

• Arts EducationArts education1998

  The Arts Education program uses sustained engagement with artistic activity to support learning throughout life. Its later work included Kali-Kalisu, an arts-based teacher-training program for government-school teachers across Karnataka, developed following a review of the education program and engagement with national and state education bodies.

• Archives and MuseumsCollections and public engagement

  This program supports artists, researchers, and cultural institutions in developing new critical and creative approaches to archives and museum collections. It treats these spaces as places for interpretation, dialogue, and public discourse, rather than solely as repositories of objects and documents.

• Project 560Place-based cultural program

  Project 560 is focused on Bengaluru and takes its name from the first three digits of the city's postal code. It invites artists, scholars, institutions, neighborhoods, and citizens to examine the city's histories, identities, spaces, and social life through creative and critical projects.

• IFA ArchiveCultural archive2018

  Established in 2018, the IFA Archive preserves documentation and other materials related to the foundation's supported projects. It includes digital materials from more than 500 projects and physical collections from more than 700 projects, with access available by appointment in Bengaluru.

1. India Foundation for the Arts
2. India Foundation for the Arts official website