Call for SSAF AAA Research Grant for Archiving Histories of Art Ideas and Visual Culture 2025 in India, The Sher-Gil Sundaram Arts Foundation (SSAF) and Asia Art Archive (AAA) in India are pleased to announce the SSAF–AAA Research Grant for Archiving Histories of Art, Ideas, and Visual Culture 2025.

This grant, which marks the seventh year of collaboration between SSAF and AAA in India, emerges from AAA’s ongoing efforts to digitise, document, and make publicly accessible recent histories of art in the region by deploying a range of innovative archival practices and research methods. This grant is in line with SSAF’s commitment to work with cross-disciplinary initiatives that address the often difficult and sometimes endangered conditions of informal archiving, the challenges posed by the fugitive political conditions of their assembly and use, and the possible links of such materials with alternative and heterodox practices in the arts and in intellectual work.

Applicants are encouraged to carefully review the full details and submit their applications before the specified deadline to seize this grant opportunity.

Last Date of Submission: 15^th September 2025

Aim of the Grant

(Call for SSAF AAA Research Grant for Archiving Histories of Art Ideas and Visual Culture 2025 in India)

The grant aims to:

• Encourage the use of innovative methodologies for purposes of identifying, documenting, researching, and annotating visual and cultural print materials in regional languages within India.
• Open up research avenues into wider discursive fields, specific regional milieus, and the politics of image-making and their circulation.
• Help foreground creative modes of interpreting and engaging with materials that emerge from a recognition of their contextual significance, which in turn could result in the creation of an archive that transforms our existing understanding of the field.
• Support projects that consider both the long- and short-term outcomes of making such materials publicly available, and suggest possible strategies for the same.
• Applicants are encouraged to suggest new connections between print cultures, intellectual histories, the visual arts, and social, political, and cultural movements; lay new trails for unpacking the archival materials developed under the grant; and explain the objectives and intent of their research.

GRANT FOCUS FOR 2025

(Call for SSAF AAA Research Grant for Archiving Histories of Art Ideas and Visual Culture 2025 in India)

We invite proposals that interrogate how visual and cultural print materials of different kinds—books, journals, magazines, broadsheets, posters, pamphlets, books, ephemera, etc.—contributed to, constituted, and were embedded in the cultural politics of a historical moment. Preference will be given to proposals that focus on materials in regional languages that are not reachable or are out of circulation, and are not easily available or located in public collections, with an intent to make these materials accessible to the best extent possible, and in meaningful and productive ways.

The areas of research may include, but need not be limited to:

• Social or political movements that extended to print culture, and the visual, literary, and political histories therein.
• The intellectual contribution of artists, activists, poets, writers, editors, designers, or publishers who played an important role in the evolution of print and visual cultural materials, and the debates involved.
• The movement of ideas on art, literature, poetry, aesthetics, and cultural practices within print culture, and as they occur via translation between languages and contexts.

SELECTION PRIORITIES

(Call for SSAF AAA Research Grant for Archiving Histories of Art Ideas and Visual Culture 2025 in India)

• Research that aims to unearth otherwise inaccessible cultural materials, and that preferably engages with regional languages, materials, and milieus.
• Research that is interdisciplinary and deploy innovative methodologies, with clearly defined objectives and outcomes.
• Research proposals that clearly outline the relevant area of research, and are feasible for completion within the given duration of the grant.
• You may refer to the project proposals of past grantees here.
• Six candidates will be shortlisted for interviews on the basis of their applications, and they will be interviewed online in October 2025. One grantee will be selected from among those interviewed by a panel consisting of one external jury member, one member from SSAF, and one member from AAA in India. The selected grantee will be informed by the end of October 2025.

APPLICATION PROCESS

(Call for SSAF AAA Research Grant for Archiving Histories of Art Ideas and Visual Culture 2025 in India)

Eligibility Criteria

Individuals who are Indian nationals residing in India, or collectives whose members are all Indian nationals residing in India.

Deadline for Applications

15 September 2025

Duration of Grant

1 November 2025–31 October 2026

Grant Amount

Up to INR 3,00,000

How to apply?

A completed application form detailing:

Applicant details (name, contact information, etc.)

Project details (title and brief description of project)

Referee details (name and contact information of one referee)

Documents to upload in a single PDF file not exceeding 50MB:

1. a) A two-page CV and a selection of two of your most relevant publications, or a portfolio of recent projects. If applying as a collective, please submit a portfolio of the collective’s activities as well as CVs of at least two members.
2. b) A project proposal that includes:

(i) A description of the proposed research with context of its relevance, an elaboration of the research methodologies to be used, as well as the intended form of the final research outcome.

(ii) An indication of sources, collections, and interlocutors the research will involve.

(iii) No more than ten images of proposed research material.

1. c) A tentative timeline for the project’s realisation and a budget of estimated costs based on the project proposal and timeline.

Project proposals may be submitted in English or any Indian language.

Please submit the completed application form by Monday, 15 September 2025.

We encourage applicants to reach out to us at aaaigrant@aaa.org.hk and ssaf.grants@gmail.com prior to submitting the application to discuss any questions, clarifications, or concerns. Late submissions will not be considered.

Get full access to the grant information, visit the Official Website Link

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