Invited: Proposals that engage neighbourhoods in Bengaluru

India Foundation for the Arts (IFA), a non-profit, is accepting proposals from interested Bangaloreans who can engage their neighbourhoods. Under their Project 560, they specifically want you to focus on memories, experiences, and imaginations. The deadline for submissions is November 30, 2021. 

To get the gist of the idea, here is their spiel: “That somberikatte | the man from the North who brought dhoodh pedha to your area | the haunted house near the tree | the road that was renamed twice | your grandmother’s love story | the lake that vanished | a housing plan that never took off | that petty shop in the corner | the security guard who writes short stories | the Saturday santhe | that uncle’s roadmap to resolve traffic woes | the slum that was torn down | drumming at the oora habba | the sleepy community library | the cab driver’s dreams… Every neighbourhood has many stories and then some more… Stories revisited, different versions of the same story,
stories that link with each other… Memories of the past, experiences of the present, imaginations of the future.”

IFA is essentially looking for folks who can engage with the spaces, stories, and people of their neighbourhoods in Bangalore. “These engagements could be an event or a series of events that could include storytelling sessions, music, street performances, temporary/permanent installations, mapping exercises, walks and so on, that would enable people to rethink and reimagine their neighbourhoods and express through the arts and culture, the joys and challenges of living together,” says Menaka Rodriguez of IFA. “These engagements must be public and in a physical format, with virtual elements in part, if necessary. We do not encourage only virtual presentations.”

All the activities have to be from January 2022 to March 2022 and the support will be a maximum of Rs 25,000. For more details on proposal format and so on, go here. And if you have any queries, you can email Menaka. The selected candidate list will be out in January 2022.

Project 560 is an IFA initiative, with support from Sony Pictures Entertainment Fund. “Taking its name from the first three digits of Bangalore’s pincode, Project 560 proposes to encourage artists, scholars, institutions and neighbourhoods to engage creatively and critically with the city,” says Rodriguez. “We aim to provide citizens with a kaleidoscopic experience of exploring the city that would enable them to reimagine the city and their relationship with it, in novel ways.”