India Foundation for the Arts

16/09/2026

How does an afternoon of curiosity and creativity sound to you? We need the arts in our lives because they help us to express and connect in ways that encourage creativity, empathy, and collaboration.

Arts Immersion Workshops are hands-on experiences that IFA offers to teams and organisations.

Explore how creative workshops in Theatre, Visual Arts, Puppetry, Zine Making, Lavani, Clay Play, Mural Painting, and Films can bring new ways of thinking and working together. 

➡️Swipe to explore what Arts Immersion Workshops offer.

Get in touch! ✍️Write to Aditi Rakhe at [email protected]

15/09/2026

📢The Request for Proposals for Project 560 is currently open!

We know we have changed up a few things, so we’re breaking down the call for you.

This is meant for projects based in Bangalore only.📍

Swipe to read about the key elements, how to apply, and what the Incubation Lab is.

🗓️ Deadline: September 21, 2026

🔗 Read all the guidelines: https://tinyurl.com/43mvbkcp

08/09/2026

Cinema is not just entertainment. It has a life of its own. And a life around it.

That's what we witnessed this Sunday, with the launch of the book 'Reel Duniya Real Duniya', co-authored by Eshwari e and Mahima mahima gowda. The book holds stories and experiences of the people of Laggere, a largely working class neighbourhood in Bangalore, with a rich culture of fan clubs and single screens. The lives of the residents are as cinematic as the films and heroes they enjoy watching. We were joined by members of the Garment Workers' Union, who shared their experiences of leisure, solitude, and living with cinema.

Thank you everyone for the wonderful, open conversation around the project, which made us equal parts nostalgic and touched. Also big thanks to BLR Design Centre BLR Design Centre for their space where we hosted the event.

🎥 Cinema is collective. Long live cinema!

🔗 You can order the book: https://tinyurl.com/yvfuu9bx

07/09/2026

LIVE ON YOUTUBE right now: IFA Open House in collaboration with Folk Culture Museum, Bhimtal

With a few days left for the IFA x Folk Culture Museum Request for Proposals, if you have any questions or queries, please join Ritwika Misra, Programme Officer: Archives and Museums and Dr Suresh Mathpal, Secretary and Director, Folk Culture Museum at the IFA Open House to learn more about the Request for Proposals and how you can apply at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_RLSQKodWQ

The session is open to artists, researchers, curators and cultural practitioners working across disciplines and contexts. Come with your questions and ideas!

September 07, 2026 | 06:30 PM onwards

The session is in English and Hindi.
For queries, contact [email protected]

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

05/09/2026

With a few days left for the IFA x Folk Culture Museum Request for Proposals, do you have any questions or queries?

Join Ritwika Misra, Programme Officer: Archives and Museums and Dr Suresh Mathpal, Secretary and Director, Folk Culture Museum at the IFA Open House to learn more about the Request for Proposals and how you can apply!

The session is open to artists, researchers, curators and cultural practitioners working across disciplines and contexts. Come with your questions and ideas!

🗓️ September 07, 2026 | 06:30 PM onwards
🔗 Registration Link: https://tinyurl.com/yp4ehpm8

The session will be in English and Hindi. For queries, contact [email protected]

03/09/2026

From the IFA Archive | Lakshminarayana T — Arts Education: 2015–2016

Lakshminarayana T, an art teacher at the Government Urdu School, Devara Jeevana Halli, Bangalore, engaged Urdu-speaking students in exploring their histories and cultures through literary arts, music and visual arts. By integrating debates, community-led sessions and interdisciplinary learning, the project fostered analytical thinking and a stronger sense of self-identity among students, while also building appreciation for local cultures among non-local students. The project culminated in a school-organised festival showcasing diverse art forms, along with audio-visual documentation of the programmes.

This grant was supported by Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan, Bangalore and Citi India.

This and more such projects are available at our in-house Archive (open to visitors!) in Bangalore or online at www.theifaarchive.org
The IFA Archive is built with support from SP Lohia Foundation India

02/09/2026

Catalyst - Arts, An Inspiration for Excellence is an Arts Services that IFA offers to workplaces and organisations.

Explore how conversations with leading artists can open new ways of seeing, thinking, and leading. Swipe to explore what Catalyst offers.

Get in touch! Write to Aditi Rakhe at [email protected]

01/09/2026

Last weekend, we had the privilege of showcasing Dhiraj Rabha's work at Sabha Blr. 'Reminiscences of a Home' has travelled to many places across the country. Each time, Dhiraj has added different elements to the work to engage with the space, asking 'What is home, who gets to call it that, who makes it, how does one remember it?'

Thank you to everyone who came and witnessed it with us!

29/08/2026

IFA@BANGALORE
Reel Duniya Real Duniya: Cinema, Memory, and Leisure in Laggere
with Eshwari R, Mahima Gowda, Shreyas and other residents of Laggere

🗓️ September 06, 2026 | 04:00 - 06:00 PM
📍 BLR Design Centre

How does cinema slip into the life of garment workers, who synchronise the sound of the sewing machine with the hum of their favourite romantic hits? What does one of Bengaluru’s surviving single-screen theatres mean to the many people whose work sustains it?

Join us for the book launch and discussion of Reel Duniya Real Duniya: Cinema, Memory, and Leisure in Laggere, a photo-illustrated essay book that explores how cinema is experienced by the people of Laggere, a predominantly working-class neighbourhood in Bengaluru with a rich cinema culture and infrastructure. The book is an ode to life around cinema and the many shapes it can take beyond the screen - everyday routines, friendships, ordinary acts of care, as well as grand gestures.

Project supported by BNP Paribas India Foundation.

🔗Register here: https://tinyurl.com/mryuj3cn

24/08/2026

Request for Proposals: Project 560

🗓️ Deadline: September 21, 2026

Last year, we engaged with Bangalore through our Project 560 festival. After a breather (and many review processes) later, we are back with the programme! We are imagining the programme differently this time.

Project 560 is an artistic provocation to look beyond the familiar hubs and zoom into the peripheries with layered pasts, chaotic present times, and imagined futures of a rapidly expanding metropolis. The programme seeks to build a peer network that nurtures artistic, curatorial and scholarly intent with sensitivity to Bangalore’s multilingual realities, its complex caste, language, and gender dynamics, and the critical environmental narratives shaping our urban ecology.

🔗 Read all the guidelines: https://tinyurl.com/43mvbkcp