The Connecting Local Fellowship 2019 - 2020

What happens when artists locate their practice in schools, libraries, community centres and even in a police station? When community spaces become hosts for collaborative art making?
Connecting Local is a fellowship for creative practitioners who want to explore the role of art practices in communities and in public spaces, that is hosted by different local collaborators in the neighbourhoods around Chitpur Road, Kolkata.
About the Fellowship
The fellowship is an invitation to explore how can artists can work long-term, in community spaces, to meaningfully engage collaborators and audiences in the process of art making. It is an invitation to explore how these practices can activate public domains, creating a space for new interactions across communities, new ways of reimagining our histories, engaging with our cities, and imagining the future.
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Can making art together help us engage more deeply with the diverse social and political contexts in our communities? Can collective experiences of unpacking and sharing local histories and underrepresented narratives change how we perceive our identities and traditions? Can shared aesthetic experiences create interactions across social boundaries and subvert hierarchies to shape our relationship with people and the city? And finally, how can art create spaces for enacting and testing and catalyzing new possibilities for the future of our communities?
The Context
Over the last 4 years Hamdasti has explored these questions by supporting creative practitioners from different fields to collaborate with communities around the diverse and historic neighborhoods of Chitpur Road. Working with students, teachers, residents, crafts people, the police and local government we have developed projects that explore local histories, and are driven by a mutual interest in creating more engaged community spaces. We have also developed the Chitpur Local Festival to share these initiatives with a wider audience, connecting new audiences to Chitpur and building a larger dialogue around socially engaged, community based arts practices.

​In the 3rd edition of this project we are partnering with past collaborators from Chitpur Local to launch the Connected Locals Fellowship, supporting the development of year long projects at different community spaces in the neighbourhoods around Chitpur. This includes 1 fellowship at the traffic guard that is hosted by the Kolkata Police, 1 in local heritage residences hosted by the Mitra and Dutt families, and 1 Open Fellowship that can be based in any community space in the neighbourhood. The projects will culminate in a collective final exhibition or public art festival at the community spaces in March 2020, and a Lab in September 2020 to conclude the fellowship.
​We invite creative practitioners across disciplines to propose collaborative processes at these community spaces that explore under represented histories, create interactions across diverse communities and catalyze engaged public domains.
 
Who can apply
  • Individual creative practitioners or collectives, including artists, designers, writers, researchers, film makers, theatre practitioners, art educators, and anyone interested in community based, public practices are encouraged to apply
  • Applicants who are based in Kolkata and its periurban areas or able to spend a sufficient part of the time in Kolkata during the fellowship
 
Application Process
  • Applicants are requested to complete the online application by 12 midnight IST, April 15
  • Applicant will receive email confirmation once the application form has been received
  • Thereafter there will be interviews with shortlisted applicants and list of selected fellows will be announced on May 15, 2019
 
Languages
Applications are accepted in English, Bengali, Hindi
 
Required Materials for Application  
Dates
Application Deadline- April 15, 2019
Interviews – April 30, 2019
Final selection- May 15, 2019
Start of Fellowship- May 30, 2019
Completion of Fellowship- September 2020
 
Fellowship Support
  • Each Fellowship will include a grant of upto INR 60000 which can be used for all activities and production related to the fellowship projects
  • Each Fellowship will include a stipend of INR 40000
  • Fellows will have the opportunity to engage with 3 visiting speakers working in the area of socially engaged practices, and other local mentors during the process of developing their projects
 
For any queries, please write to us at [email protected]

The Connecting Local Fellowship is initiated by Hamdasti in partnership with the Kolkata Traffic Police, Mitra Family, and Dutt family.