CATALYST GRANTS 2022-23 AWARDEES
Manashri Pai Dukle
Manashri Pai Dukle is an artist, art historian, lecturer, art writer and researcher. She graduated from Goa College of Art before completing a Diploma in Interior Design from INIFD, Pune, and a Post Graduation in Art History from Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath, Bangalore. Dukle’s practice broadly revolves around myths, beliefs, rituals and traditions, setting a socio-cultural dialogue using archives and objects as traces. For the CATALYST Grant, Dukle will present the myths and beliefs associated with the cycle of ‘human existence’, from announcement of birth to the naming of the newborn and other customs and ceremonies in an ethnographic framework, using images from personal archives along with the research-text, documenting these oral histories from the land of Goa through different perspectives and narratives.
Pratik Tushar Naik
Pratik Tushar Naik’s works respond to provocations that have to do with the ‘reasoning aspect’ of the human mind. The artist’s works are largely based on personal experiences which are then further developed into something universal. Naik’s work often uses non-conventional means of expression, digital renders and animation. His current practice explores the possibilities of this medium in terms of execution as well its expressive potential. Naik completed a BFA in painting from Goa college of Art and is currently pursuing an MVA from the SN School of Arts and Communications, Hyderabad. The proposed project recreates a virtual elevator that focuses on the human urge to move towards a materialistic goal whilst sacrificing the aspects of compassion and empathy.
Purvai Aranya
Purvai Aranya is a writer and artist, both gender-fluid and genre-fluid. They have an MFA in Poetry from the University of Minnesota, and are currently working as a writer, editor and storyboarder. Purvai’s work is published in The Indian Quarterly, The Pind Collective, Vayavya, and The Bombay Literary Magazine, among others. The CATALYST grant will give Aranya the opportunity to complete an in-progress graphic work, Waterlog. This graphic-memoir is about living with grief and death, and learning from water. The author works across genres and with archival materials, examining the stories of their grandparents’ illnesses and deaths, and the aftermath for those who survived. The grief in this book slips through boundaries like water can, like ghosts can, continuing to exist while changing forms.
Subhash Sajja
Subhash Sajja is a musician and composer, whose work explores the movement of thoughts and feelings through consonances and dissonances of sound. He improvises on a diverse array of tonal/traditional scale based movements and sound is that immersive and exploratory with a focus on its particulate and granular aspect. Subhash studied Orchestration for Film and Television and earned a certificate from Berklee School of Music. For the CATALYST grant project, Sajja will be composing a piece of music on a modular synthesizer, which will be performed live, together with a choreographed performance by a movement artist, a singer, spoken word artist and a visual projection artist. The theme of the presentation is the contrasting states between an industrial non-sustainable environment and a natural organic one.
Venkatesh Pai
Through his drawings, oil paintings and mixed-media scultptures, Venkatesh Pai looks for new readings and understandings of familiar objects. He constructs images, motifs, texts and objects which freely evolve and often conflict with each other. Pai has a BFA in painting from Goa college of art and a MVA in printmaking from MSU, Baroda.He lives and works in Margao. Pai’s work for the Catalyst grant will be an extension of his ongoing practice, which will be a series of oil paintings, prints, ceramic sculptures, soft toys pieces, and books. The ideas will be drawn from his farcical interactions with images,texts and objects that he encounters. The work will grow and evolve as the artist gathers, nurtures and provokes triggers through his environs.
ENGAGE GRANTS 2022-23 AWARDEES
UnSchool by Hafsa Bukhari & Rashmi Baruah
Hafsa Bukhary is a passionate educator, poet and aspiring film- maker. She develops curriculum for students and trains teachers in under-resourced government schools. Her firm belief in “it takes a village to raise a child” led her to work with community centers across the country, and build UnSchool in Goa.
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Rashmi Baruah heads fundraising of Latika Roy Foundation, an NGO in Dehradun working with disabled children. She brings over a decade of experience in philanthropic collaborations, fundraising, communications, and operations across non-profit, start-up, and corporate.
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​For the ENGAGE Community Art Grant, Hafsa and Rashmi will be working on their ongoing arts education project, UnSchool. Using the transformational power of art and local collaboration (a collective of artists, educators, and innovators in Goa), the project aims to foster social-emotional learning and well-being in children (aged 8-16). It is a 10-week exploration, co-created by kids and experts, where each week is a deep-dive into different questions - self, community - through different art forms -fine arts, installations, spoken word/poetry, music, body movement, stories, and movies.
Goa Open Arts is pleased to announce the 6 recipients of the Catalyst Grants and Engage Grants 2022-23. With the intention to continue our support to the artistic community of Goa, the Catalyst Grants will provide bursaries of INR 50,000 to 5 of the awardees as single artists or collectives for developing a new or ongoing art project while the Engage Grants provides a bursary of INR 50,000 to a project that uses creative practices to involve and benefit local communities.
In addition to the monetary support and access to mentorship opportunities, the 6 grantees will have their work exhibited at the next Goa Open Arts public programme scheduled to take place in May 2023.
Support the initiative
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Goa Open Arts is a platform initiated by artists for artists to support and invigorate creative practice in Goa with the belief that creative thinking and discourse are vital for a healthy society. This initiative is supported and funded by people who acknowledge the role that art plays in community. You can support the initiative in your own way - from making a financial donation, contributing in kind or bringing on board your expertise.
To make a contribution or to read more about ways to support >
To get in touch drop us a mail at goaopenarts@gmail.com
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