IFA-QAMRA Creative and Scholarly Projects: Request for Proposals

India Foundation for the Arts (IFA)
in collaboration with the
Queer Archive for Memory, Reflection and Activism (QAMRA)
Archival Project at NLSIU Bengaluru
invites applications for
IFA-QAMRA Creative Project and IFA-QAMRA Scholarly Project
under its Archives and Museums programme which IFA will implement

Application Deadline: Wednesday, 4 January 2023
Click here to read the call in Kannada.

India Foundation for the Arts (IFA) in collaboration with the Queer Archive for Memory, Reflection and Activism (QAMRA) Archival Project at NLSIU Bengaluru invites applications for an IFA-QAMRA Creative Project and an IFA-QAMRA Scholarly Project, under its Archives and Museums programme, which IFA will implement.

The Archives and Museums programme of IFA has been initiated with a two-fold objective: to provide arts practitioners and researchers with an opportunity to generate new, critical and creative approaches for public engagement with archives and museum collections, and to energise these spaces as platforms for dialogue and discourse. For more information, click here.

About QAMRA Archival Project at NLSIU:

A multimedia archival project situated within the library of the National Law School of India University, QAMRA chronicles and preserves the stories of communities marginalised on the basis of gender and sexuality in India. To go through their work, click here.

About the Collections at QAMRA Archival Project at NLSIU Bengaluru:

The material at QAMRA Archival Project at NLSIU Bengaluru is not constituted of stand-alone collections but is interconnected through the people who formed the queer movement. It provides documentary evidence, and also anchors the memories of various people involved in different queer collectives and organisations. For the Creative and Scholarly Projects, QAMRA will open up the following collections: 

• Maya Sharma and Indra Pathak Collection: Maya Sharma and Indra Pathak are feminist, queer, grassroots activists based in Vadodara, Gujarat. This collection represents their work with queer communities in Gujarat and some of their organisational work with Vikalp and Parma/Sabrang. For more information, click here.
• Sangama Collection: Sangama is an organisation dedicated to protecting the rights of working class queer communities, sex workers and people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHA). This collection gives a broad view of the functioning of Sangama and its daughter CBOs, and describes the context in which the queer movement developed in Bangalore. For more information, click here.
• Section 377 IPC Collection: This collection presents the various dimensions to the litigation process towards the decriminalisation of Sec 377 of IPC across different collections. For more information, click here.
• T Jayashree Collection: The material in this collection consists of unedited footage of public and private meetings, protests, community workshops, pride marches, and several in depth interviews with activists, lawyers, petitioners and queer folk. For more information, click here.

The collections contain a diverse set of materials: raw video footage, photographs, newspaper clippings in multiple languages, legal documents and notes, personal artefacts and memorabilia. The collections allow us a glimpse into queer communities from the late 1980s to the early 2000s. The communities are represented at moments of community formation, dissent, creativity, joy, rage, defeat, and victory and provide a view into what it means to be queer in India through the lenses of history, culture, social change, and judicial reform.

About IFA-QAMRA Creative and Scholarly Projects: 

The Creative Project offers the Project Coordinator opportunities for curatorial and artistic engagement with the archive housed at NLSIU Bengaluru, reimagining the collections in innovative ways and presenting the collections through public programmes such as talks, workshops, exhibitions etc. both online and offline.

For the Scholarly Project, the Project Coordinator will need to research and critically engage with the collections at QAMRA housed at NLSIU Bengaluru, and create content that will further the public engagement of the archive with tangible outcomes such as a monograph, essays, etc. and present their research through public programmes both online and offline. 

Both projects are envisioned for a period of one year.

Project Coordinators working on the Creative and Scholarly projects will be required to visit, study and research the collections at the physical archives of QAMRA at NLSIU Bengaluru. Project Coordinators will have access to the specific materials mentioned above, over the duration of the project. For more information about the collection and archival material available for research, please contact Siddarth S Ganesh, Assistant Archivist at qamraarchive@nls.ac.in

Please note that IFA will be implementing both projects.

Applicant Profile:

• Applicants of diverse gender and sexual identities are encouraged to apply.
• We seek applications from curators, artists, researchers, writers, performers as well other creative practitioners, and from scholars with background in research and keen interest in working with archival and museum collections.
• We also encourage applications that demonstrate an ability to think through interdisciplinary and collaborative approaches and methodologies for their outcomes.
• Since QAMRA is a physical archive based out of Bengaluru, applications from in and around Bengaluru will be given preference as the Project Coordinators will have to spend a considerable amount of time at the archives during the project period.
• Only Indian nationals are eligible to apply. To know more about our eligibility criteria, please click here.

Application Guidelines:

Your application must include:

• A proposal briefly describing a project (an exhibition, or outlines of creative outcomes that one can imagine, or research questions if it is a Scholarly project) that could be developed from the visual and textual material mentioned above. The description should include the vision, approach and possible outcomes. Proposals that work with materials overlapping the different collections at the archives are encouraged.
• A brief note on other public programmes that could be developed from the material.
• A detailed budget.
• Your curriculum vitae with a brief description of a project you have been involved with as a curator, arts practitioner, or researcher. This description should comprise the vision, approach, processes, and outcomes that have resulted from that project. Please send us links and not attachments.

Project Budget:

• The project cost should not exceed Rs. 2,00,000/-
• You may budget for an honorarium of Rs. 12,000/- per month subject to a limit of Rs. 1,44,000/- for the entire duration of the project. Please note that the total amount is inclusive of the honorarium.
• Our funds will cover only project-related costs and activities and will not pay for infrastructure costs or equipment purchase.
• Please ensure that each budget category pertains to a specific item of project-related expenditure.

Please note that IFA will implement this project with you directly as Project Coordinator.

Key Dates:

• The deadline for receiving applications is Wednesday, December 21, 2022.
• Interviews with shortlisted candidates are expected to take place in January, 2023.
• The Project will commence in January 2023 for a period of one year.

Image Credit: Julie, Pride 2008, Organising Committee. QAMRA Archival Project at NLSIU

Email your applications or any queries to Ritwika Misra at ritwika@indiaifa.org with the subject line: Application for IFA-QAMRA Archival Project at NLSIU Bengaluru.