Folk Arts Grant 2025
About
The Serendipity Folk Arts Grant offers financial support to practitioners in the field of Folk Traditions within the performing arts. Folk traditions in the performing arts refer to the ways in which communities express their culture, stories, and values through music, dance, theater, and other forms of art. These traditions are passed down through generations, often without being formally written down, and reflect the everyday lives, beliefs, and experiences of people from a specific place or group. Performances typically use simple instruments, traditional costumes, and familiar themes, helping to preserve the history and identity of the community.
The goal of the grant is to enhance the artist’s practice by enabling them to further pursue their discipline, thereby contributing to both their craft and the community. The grant can be used to pursue mentorship under an individual of the artist’s choice, or one of the nominators, to further develop their practice and contribute to the community that upholds the art form.
This edition of the grant is open to folk artists from the North zone of the country, including Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Chandigarh, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. The artists will be nominated by a jury selected by the Jury in conversation with the SAF team.
Intake
1 Artist
Grant Amount
2,00,000/-
Format
- Jury Members Nominate 3 artists each.
- Out of all the nominations, the Jury in consensus finalize on 1 artist who shall be awarded the grant.
- The Grant should be utilized with 12 months of signing the agreement with the Foundation.
- Grant Amount awarded to the artist will need to be utilized effectively by the artist. The amount can be used for travel, stay, materials, daily expenses and other expenses incurred during the mentorship
Parameters for Nominators
- The grant is focused to support artists who are either practicing a certain folk form over generations or are artists who are learning and continue the practice.
- We encourage the Jury to nominate artists/groups who have been working on their practice and are looking for ways to develop it further.
- Artists who continue to teach and impart the practice of their folk tradition can be considered.
- Artists looking to develop and travel their work further can be considered.
- We encourage the Jury to be inclusive in all aspects of region, religion, gender, caste, race etc.
Documents required post Nomination for final selection
- Performance/Practice Video
- Bio of the artist or group
- Audio/Video/Written document (in English/Hindi) outlining the statement of purpose.
Jury
- Dr. Arshiya Sethi
- Akhshay Gandhi
- Anurupa Roy
About Jury
Dr. Arshiya Sethi
Dr. Arshiya Sethi, twice a Fulbright Fellow, is a well-known scholar, commentator, and author on the arts—particularly dance. Her research is intersectional, engaging with performance, politics, gender, and ecology. For four decades, she presented arts-based programmes on national television, eventually serving as Advisor to DD Bharati.
She was also the dance critic for The Times of India, curated programmes for city festivals across India, and served as Creative Head of the India Habitat Centre during its first decade of operations. An “Artivist”—using arts for activism and activism in the arts—Dr. Sethi founded Unmute.help to foster legal literacy and a culture of compliance in the arts.
She currently edits the international online journal South Asian Dance Intersections and writes on dance in India and the diaspora.
Anurupa Roy
Anurupa Roy is a puppeteer, puppet theatre director, and puppet designer. She is the Founder and Managing Trustee of The Katkatha Puppet Arts Trust. She holds a diploma in puppet theatre from the University of Stockholm, Sweden, and has trained in traditional glove puppetry at La Scuola Della Guaratelle in Naples, Italy, under Bruno Leone.
She has held residencies at Deutsches Forum DFP in Bochum, Germany, and at the Institut International de la Marionnette in Charleville-Mézières, France. Anurupa has also trained with Neville Tranter at Figurentheater Kolleg, Bochum.
She has directed over 25 puppet performances for Katkatha, TIE Company, and the National School of Drama. Notable productions include About Ram, Across the Sea, and Mahabharata.
Her accolades include the Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar (2007), National Award for Contribution to Puppet Theatre (Ministry of Culture), Aditya Birla Kalakiran Puraskar (2016), and META Awards (Best Director and Best Production for Mahabharata, 2017), as well as the Shankar Nag Award for Theatre (2017).
Akhshay Gandhi
Akhshay Gandhi is a theatre actor, director, and storyteller. He serves as an ambassador for the SITI Company (New York City) and is a visiting faculty member at Lalit Kala Kendra and Drama School Mumbai. His work explores the depth of daily life and mythology.
His performances have been staged at prestigious venues and festivals including the Serendipity Arts Festival, NCPA, Stanford University, UCLA, Columbia University, Odin Theatre (Denmark), and Spoken Fest (Mumbai).
Akhshay has trained at SITI Company (New York), Odin Theatre Laboratory (Denmark), and Indian Ensemble (Bangalore). His accomplishments include delivering a TEDx talk, presenting at the IATC Conference, receiving the Tata Scholar Grant, and being named to the BITSAA 30 Under 30 list.
He is passionate about supporting artists through initiatives like likeforartists, arts community sessions, mentorships, and new work development. He also shares his evolving understanding of performance through facilitation.
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