SSAF–AAA Research Grant for Archiving Histories of Art, Ideas, and Visual Culture 2025
SSAF–AAA Research Grant for Archiving Histories of Art, Ideas, and Visual Culture 2025
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.
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
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
- 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
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
Grant Deliverables
Since the purpose of the grant is to make material collated during the research process publicly accessible in annotated form, grantees will be expected to outline a method by which their research can be made available in the public domain. For example, this could take the form of a blog or website, or a richly annotated visual essay; it could also be a deposit (physical or digital) to an existing archive or institution – or any other forms that the grantee may propose. Due attention must be paid to the sensitivity of the content, permissions and rights, and the feasibility of attaining these results within the duration of the grant.
At the conclusion of the grant period, a sampling of the materials developed through the grant may be handed over to SSAF and AAA.
Grant Process and Afterlife
Report
For administrative purposes, grantees will be required to submit one midterm report (750–1,000 words) and one final report (1,500–3,000 words) outlining the research process, describing key findings, listing collections and interlocutors, and declaring expenses for how the grant amount has been utilised.
Interim Presentation
Following the submission of the midterm report, AAA and SSAF will organise a closed-door interim presentation by the grantee with members from both organisations attending, and any other subject experts suggested by SSAF and AAA.
Public Presentation
A public presentation of the research will be co-organised by AAA and SSAF at the conclusion of the grant period.
Application Requirements
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:
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.
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.
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 prior to submitting the application to discuss any questions, clarifications, or concerns. Late submissions will not be considered.
About AAA in India
Asia Art Archive in India (AAA in I) is an independent registered Public Charitable Trust established in 2013 in New Delhi, with the goal of building resources for research on the region’s dynamic contemporary art scene. It accomplishes this mission by digitising artist and scholarly archives, developing research projects, and organising programmes. AAA in I’s digitised research collections can be accessed from its space in New Delhi, which has been open to the public since 2016.