At a time when art fund grantees and freelance professionals in the cultural sector are staring at months of uncertainty owing to a crushing pandemic, a premier arts development foundation in India has just announced its most ambitious prize money for lens-based practitioners in South Asia.
As part of Indo-French bilateral relations through cultural exchange, Serendipity Arts Foundation and Les Rencontres d’Arles announced what is believed to be the biggest photography, video and new media grant. Supported by the Embassy of France in India, it is named the Serendipity Arles Grant. The generous endowment will offer Rs 12 lakh (around 15,000 euros) to lens-based creatives across Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
The call for entries already began on April 15 on social media handles of the Serendipity Arts Foundation, Les Rencontres d’Arles and the Embassy of France in India, and the last date for receiving applications is July 7, 2020.
A jury comprising artists, authors, directors of the foundation, and personalities from various artistic disciplines will shortlist 10 artists who will be given a grant of Rs70,000 in the first stage to support their work. The grant finalist will be chosen based on the projects showcased by the selected artists at the upcoming edition of the Serendipity Arts Festival in Goa, scheduled to take place in December this year. The winner gets to develop the project and show the final presentation at the 2022 edition of Rencontres d'Arles in France.
Les Rencontres d'Arles is a 50-year-old summer photography festival held every year in the city of Arles. The international exhibition spans twenty heritage sites across the exquisite landscape of the historic city in the south of France. The famous Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh is believed to have produced 300 paintings in a span of a single year in Arles.
Said Sunil Kant Munjal, founder patron of Serendipity Arts Foundation, “Serendipity Arts Foundation was set up to energise the arts, spur creativity and to empower artists. Besides hosting the impactful and path-breaking Serendipity Arts Festival, the foundation has supported the arts and artists of South Asia through residency programmes and grants. The collaboration with Rencontres d’Arles will strengthen our resolve to back and support artists from the region and help promote their work on a global platform”.
Considering how the aftereffects of the coronavirus pandemic on interstate and international mobility are expected to last the whole of 2020, it is reassuring to see how an annual arts festival in India is confident of returning this December.
