Arts Journalism Grant 2026
About
Now in its fourth edition, the SAF Arts Journalism Grant seeks to provide support to early- or mid-career journalists/reporters in an effort to develop a body of reportage around creative communities/practices in the subcontinent. Situated as we are within an ecosystem that is more saturated with initiatives for critical and curatorial writing, this Grant hopes to address a seeming lacuna in opportunities for accessible arts journalism, to drive greater interest and public stakeholdership in the arts.
Expanding from a single awardee in the previous editions to a small cohort, the revised grant foregrounds skills-building, ethical reporting, editorial rigour, and access to publication.
The awardees will be chosen by an external jury via an open call. The essays will be published online, with the hope to eventually publish them as a collated printed anthology after the first few editions are complete.
GRANT SCHEME
₹25,000/- each for 4 writers
Structure and Phases
Phase 1: Open Call and Selection
An open call invites applications from across the subcontinent. Shortlisted essays are reviewed by a jury, followed by deliberations and final selection. Four writers are awarded the grant.
Phase 2: Sessions and Workshops
A structured series of sessions and workshops introduce participants to key tools and approaches in arts journalism. Sessions are open to all applicants, while workshops are exclusive to the grantees.
Phase 3: Reporting and Submission
Grantees develop and submit original essays based on independent reporting and research, with ongoing mentorship support.
Phase 4: Editorial Process
Each writer works closely with assigned editors through multiple drafts to prepare essays for publication, emphasising clarity, structure, and journalistic integrity.
Eligibility Criteria
- At least 2 years of experience in journalistic writing, whether as a freelancer or full-time for a newsdesk. Experience in the Arts and Culture beat preferred, but not essential. Multimedia journalism does not fall within the purview of this grant.
- Applicants must be Indian nationals residing in India.
- Applicants must be under 35 years of age.
Application Requirements
Submission of a single PDF file (no more than 20 MB), whose constituents would be:
- A 1000-word writing sample or links to 2 publications.
- A 300-word pitch that would include details of the subjects chosen for the reports, an argument for why these stories need to be told, a tentative list of sources, and a rough overview of methodology.
- CV/ Resume
Kindly name your document in the following manner, ArtsJournalismGrant2026_<applicant’s name>.
Outcome
- Four selected writers receive a reporting grant and structured mentorship.
- Editorial guidance across multiple drafts.
- Online publication of completed essays.
- Select essays may be collated into a printed anthology in future editions.
Jury
Nandita Jaishankar is an independent editor and arts manager based in New Delhi. In 2011, she co-founded PIX with Rahaab Allana, a publication and platform that foregrounds contemporary photography and critical writing across South Asia. Most recently, she spent nine years with Serendipity Arts as Assistant General Manager, Editorial and Programmes, shaping publications, commissions, and public programmes for the Serendipity Arts Festival.
Skye Arundhati Thomas is a writer, editor, and curator currently based in Madrid.
Arman Khan is a writer, editor, and educator. Formerly executive editor at Vogue India, he writes at the intersection of culture and fashion with a sociological lens. His work has appeared in The New York Times, VICE, Them, Pitchfork, It’s Nice That, Condé Nast Traveller, Architectural Digest, and more.
FACILITATOR
Ankur Paliwal is an independent journalist and founder and CEO of queerbeat, a multi- award winning LGBTQ+ newsroom that focuses on building public understanding of queerness in India. Ankur has over 15-years of journalism experience as a reporter and editor. Before starting queerbeat in 2022, Ankur worked with newsrooms like CNN, Guardian, Nature, Rest of World, Scroll.in and FiftyTwo. Many of his stories on a range of issues including gender, sexuality, science, climate change and global health have won international journalism awards. He has a master’s degree in Science Journalism from the Columbia University in New York. He lives in New Delhi.
Deepa Bhasthi is a writer and International Booker Prize winning literary translator working in Kannada and English. Her cultural criticism, essays, fiction, columns and journalism have been published extensively in Indian and international publications, anthologies and art book projects. She is the author of a children’s book ‘Champi and the Fig Tree’ in Kannada and English. Her published translations from Kannada include works by Kota Shivarama Karanth, Kodagina Gouramma and Banu Mushtaq. She was a finalist for a National Critics Circle Award in 2026 and the recipient of an EnglishPEN Award.
Deepa lives and works in Kodagu in southern India.
Kabir Jhala is a London-based journalist and editor. His writing focuses on the impact of economics, politics and legislation on art and the art industry. He is the art market editor of The Art Newspaper, overseeing its coverage of the global art trade, including commercial galleries, auctions, fairs and legal developments.
Najrin Islam is a film / art critic and curator based in London. She has bylines in several publications, including ArtReview Asia, Art Monthly, e-flux Criticism, Momus, Sight and Sound, and ASAP Connect. She has written for catalogues and anthologies by Serendipity Arts Foundation (New Delhi), Museum of Art and Photography (Bangalore), Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2022, Rowman and Littlefield (Maryland), and Edition Fink (Switzerland); and curatorial notes for Kunstkasten Winterthur, Project 88, Gallery Maskara, The Guild, Vadehra Art Gallery, and Experimenter. Najrin is a recipient of the Art Scribes Award 2022 (conferred by Prameya Art Foundation, La Napoule Art Foundation and Institut Francais) and the Art Writer’s Award 2018 (conferred by TAKE on Art magazine and Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia), and attended the respective residencies at Château de la Napoule, France (2023) and Villa Sträuli, Switzerland (2019). More recently, she was selected to take part in the Talking Shorts/END European Workshop for New Curators #2 and the BFI Critics Mentorship Programme 2025. She has curated film programmes for London Indian Film Festival, London Short Film Festival, Queer East Festival, and Go Short Film Festival. She recently presented her ideas on decolonial film programming at the Eye International Conference 2026, held at the EYE Filmmuseum, Amsterdam. In both her critical and curatorial work, Najrin is interested in the intersection of image histories, archival politics, and narratives of repair.
Radhika Iyengar is the author of the debut non-fiction Fire on the Ganges: Life Among the Dead in Banaras, published by HarperCollins India. The book won the Gaurang River Prize for Best Non-Fiction (2024) and the Kalinga Literary Award (Youth), and was shortlisted for several honours, including the Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay NIF Book Prize 2024. It is currently being translated into Hindi and Gujarati.
She is a recipient of the Red Ink Award for Excellence in Indian Journalism (2018), the Charles Wallace India Trust Fellowship (2020), and the Sanskriti Prabha Dutt Fellowship (2016). She also held the Bianca Pancoat Patton Fellowship, which enabled a residency at Sangam House (2019), and was invited to the Ahmedabad Writing Programme (2024). Her journalism has appeared in Al Jazeera, Atlas Obscura, Hyperallergic, The Indian Express, Scroll.in, Vogue, Condé Nast Traveller, Architectural Digest, Platform magazine and other publications.
Shuddhabrata Sengupta is an artist and curator with the Raqs Media Collective.
Skye Arundhati Thomas is a writer, editor and curator currently based in Madrid.
Applications for the Arts Journalism Grant 2026 are now closed. Stay tuned for more opportunities.
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