Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art awarded with industry award and significant role at India Art Fair 2014

FICA is a not-for-profit foundation that encourages, promotes and supports innovative work in the field of the visual arts.

Recently awarded the 'Not-for-Profit Art Initiative of the Year’ at the inaugural Forbes India Art Awards, FICA has been officially recognised for outstanding initiatives and contributions to the art world in the areas of outreach, education, residencies, research, grants and any other activity that promotes the cause of Indian art either in India or globally.

FICA is leading the way in promoting collaborative outreach in India, notably with a resounding response at this years’ India Art Fair through their inspirational collaboration with FLOW India, who work with children connecting culture with the school curriculum. FICA’s presence at the fair was notable for their book launches, talks, debates and child-based workshops - establishing, alongside the Speakers’ Forum, one of the few serious platforms for educational outreach and support.

Vidya Shivadas, Director commented:

The Forbes India Art Award is an indicator of the art community's faith in FICA and we value this a great deal. FICA's motto is to support practice and research and generate platforms for further dissemination and education. If you look at the great demand there has been for the children's workshops at the India Art Fair you can see how much people want to engage with art and establish a meaningful relationship with it.

Additionally, FICA’s educational and outreach activities are gearing up for an exciting year ahead of projects that will be realised by various grantees in 2014. Chosen with the help of independent juries made up of curators, artists, filmmakers and pedagogues in 2013, the grantees will develop their projects and practice through the course of the year.

The FICA Emerging Artist Award winner Kartik Sood will make his way for a residency to Switzerland in the summer, while the Samudra Kajal Saikia, the first recipient of the newly instituted Ila Dalmia FICA Research Grant, begins year-long-research on Performance Art in India, specifically focusing on practitioners in New Delhi.  Srajana Kaikini has just returned from her three month research residency in London, as a part of FICA’s Research Fellowship, having immersed herself into the Goldsmith’s PhD Knowledge/Curation seminars, and programming at Iniva and Delfina Foundation.  FICA is also instrumental in supporting Indrani Baruah, who will develop her public art project working with the site and communities of the Uzan Bazaar Ghat, on the River Brahmaputra in Guwahati, in a project titled Cultural Re-imaginations Stage III: New Collective Cultural Journeys and Initiatives.

About FICA

The Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art (FICA) was launched in 2006 to support artists and educational activities in the visual arts, benefiting both emerging and established artists, art historians, curators, art critics, and other professionals devoted to the study of contemporary Indian art. With the initial support of Vadehra Art Gallery, FICA is a self sustaining organisation, raising their own funds, not-for-profit entity through various fundraising activities and generous private contributions. FICA’s annual programmes include the Public Art Grant, the Research Fellowship for visual artists and writers and the Emerging Artist Award.FICA is also focused on children’s’ programming as well as the setting up of an archive of Contemporary Indian Art. FICA also has an exhibition grant, through which it aims to support Indian art exhibitions in museums abroad, and hopes to bring these groundbreaking exhibitions to India. FICA has supported London’s Serpentine Gallery’s travelling exhibition Indian Highway, an exhibition of contemporary Indian art curated by Hans-Ulrich Obrist and Julia Peyton Jones. It has also supported the recent exhibition Where Three Dreams Cross - 150 Years of Photography from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, at the Whitechapel Gallery, London, which was curated by Sunil Gupta.

To interview Vidya Shivadas, Director of FICA, or for any further information please contact nidhi.awasty@flint-pr.com or call +919899598586