Photo courtesy of VAST Bhutan Archive
Photo courtesy of VAST Bhutan Archive
The Rubin has selected its second round of Rubin Grants, totaling $200,000 in funding, to support 15 art and research initiatives that aim to promote the rich cultural legacy and living traditions of the Himalayan regions.
As part of the 2025 award cycle, the Rubin received 132 letters of inquiry, of which 15 projects were selected with grant sizes ranging from $3,000 to $25,000, depending on the scale, impact, and needs of each project.
Selected projects will advance and generate further knowledge of this developing area of focus through a new conservation training program in Mongolia; documentation of historic art in central Bhutan and Nepal; research that focuses on the provenance of objects from a Tibetan Buddhist temple in Darjeeling, India; Tibetan visual art teaching resources and materials for educators; a two-channel video installation in northern India that explores the Tibetan Buddhist concept of interdependence; new exhibitions, multimedia projects, and much more.
“It is exciting to see the global response from emerging and established scholars, artists, and nonprofits from over 30 countries applying to our grants program, ” says Michelle Bennett Simorella, Rubin Museum Director of Global Projects & Collections. “It exemplifies the critical need for this resource that can empower scholars and creatives to dedicate their time to pursue projects that will give greater understanding and visibility to the rich cultural legacy and living traditions of the Himalayan regions.”
The announcement of the 2025 Rubin Grants is made alongside the reveal of the 2025 Art Prize recipient, Khadhok – Tibetan Artists’ Collective. Together the Rubin Art Prize and Rubin Grants will provide $230K of direct support to artists and researchers working in the Himalayan regions and internationally. These initiatives demonstrate the Rubin’s enhanced commitment in its new model to nurturing the next generation of artists and scholars dedicated to expanding awareness and understanding of Himalayan art.
Zanskar, in remote northern India, is home to various Buddhist monasteries and nunneries, whose traditional mud-brick structures are endangered by climate change, seismic activities, and rapid modernization. This collaboration between Tibetan and Zanskari architects/engineers and local monks and nuns documents the structures of eight Tibetan Buddhist sites (Karsha, Phugtal, Bardan, Mune, and Stongde Monasteries and Dorje Dzong and Chuchikjal Nunneries), and aims to capture Zanskar’s vernacular architecture and cultural landscape before irreversible changes take hold.
Grant amount: $25,000
This project aims to train community members who oversee conservation efforts in Mongolia—held at the Zanabazar Museum in Ulaanbaatar, and in smaller, remote museums and religious sites. Most of those community members are painters without formal conservation training. The project will provide low-cost, practical conservation guidance tailored to local skills and resources, particularly focusing on preserving traditional thangkas while respecting existing practices of repainting these cultural treasures. The project will also research traditional preservation methods in remote Mongolia and document local heritage practices.
Grant amount: $20,000
Sumtrhang Temple, founded in the 13th century, is located in Ura in central Bhutan and houses an extensive collection of manuscripts and artworks. While the manuscripts have been digitized, its extensive collection of religious paintings (thangkas), wall murals, statues, and ceremonial objects remains largely undocumented. The project aims to create a complete digital record of these artworks through photography and detailed cataloging. By interviewing religious leaders and community members the project will also aim to capture how the sacred objects were and are used in rituals and daily religious life. This project will provide invaluable insights into Bhutanese religious history and artistic heritage.
Grant amount: $19,500
This project examines the understudied methods employed by Himalayan communities to restore their sacred artistic heritage, which often contrast with Western approaches. For Himalayan communities, restoration essentially means reconstruction: restoring functionality to the so-called ‘receptacles’ of the deities and their sacred spaces, whereas Western methods have evolved towards a conservation-oriented model that generally avoids reconstruction and is not always aligned with the religious sensibilities and needs of local communities. This project documents restoration practices by contemporary traditional artists in Ladakh and/or Mustang and aims to explore how indigenous approaches might inform restoration methods in museums and international collections beyond their original contexts.
Grant amount: $12,500
After the destruction of the Shechen Monastery in Kham in 1950, the Shechen Monastery in Boudha, Nepal, was established in 1980. To this day, it remains the only Shechen monastery that holds ritual dances (cham) for the public outside of Kham. Since 2004, when the last Tibetan master visited to teach the traditional dances, the transmission has been interrupted, with no remaining authorities available locally to consult on the proper methods. The goal of this project is to produce a set of instructional videos to document the dances.
Grant amount: $6,250
This research project by Kalzang Dorjee Bhutia focuses on the provenance and current location of a corpus of cultural belongings and art removed from Sikkim in the 1890s by the Buddhologist and British colonial officer L.A. Waddell (1854–1938). Referred to in Waddell’s writings as a “Lāmaist temple with its fittings.” Bhutia has researched collections and records in the United Kingdom connected to the temple and Waddell as an author and collector, and will now study records on and holdings by Waddell in the Ethnologisches Museum in Berlin.
Grant amount: $5,250
This dissertation research project by Suyog Prajapati (University of Michigan) examines the art and architecture of a group of understudied monasteries in Bhaktapur, which was among the Kathmandu Valley’s most influential city states during the later Malla period (ca. 1500–1769 CE). Bhaktapur developed a dense urban fabric punctuated with plazas, shrines, courtyards, and residences that were interconnected by arterial streets and thoroughfares, which included two dozen Buddhist monasteries. Of those, the study examines the visual and material culture of Tadhichem Baha, a royally sanctioned monastery located in the city’s palace precincts, and three other independent monasteries.
Grant amount: $3,000
The research by Briana Brightly (Harvard University), which is part of a dissertation project, focuses on anatomical illustrations. In 1687 the painter Lhodrak Tenzin Norbu carefully observed and sketched the liver, heart, spleen, and other organs of a recently dissected corpse at a surgeon’s dissection table. These observations served as the basis for a series of anatomical paintings illustrating a fundamental text of traditional Tibetan medicine. This project traces the reception history of Lhodrak Tenzin Norbu’s illustrations between the eighteenth and early twentieth centuries and contributes to a growing body of scholarship in the history of science that shows medicine to be, in part, a visual pursuit.
Grant amount: $3,000
This project addresses the risk to Tibetan artistic traditions caused by exile and displacement by creating a comprehensive visual arts curriculum that bridges traditional art forms with modern educational methods. The curriculum is grounded in established pedagogical frameworks to support diverse learning styles while fostering creativity, cultural identity, and critical thinking. This collaborative initiative among educators, artists, and scholars aims to preserve Tibetan artistic heritage by equipping teachers with structured materials and empowering students to engage with art as both personal expression and cultural resilience.
Grant amount: $22,000
The Lungta (Wind Horse) Art Festival to be held in 2026 and organized by VAST Bhutan aims to promote compassion and ethical responsibility through arts. The festival specifically addresses the environmental crisis of synthetic microplastic pollution in the Himalayan Mountain ecosystems, using art and the Buddhist philosophy of interdependence to help participants understand how individual actions impact the wider ecosystem. The grant supports a number of exhibitions that are to take place as part of the festival.
Grant amount: $15,000
This project supports Toronto-based artist Tenzoni in creating a graphic novel, Threads of Camp Mountain. The novel follows three Tibetan sisters from the Western diaspora who attend a transformative summer camp in Dharamshala, India, where they discover their heritage. The story explores second-generation identity and diasporic disconnect as the sisters navigate the journey of understanding their roots, blending heartfelt storytelling with humor and vibrant illustrations that make Tibetan culture accessible to young readers. The project aims to provide representation for diasporic and underrepresented communities while bridging generational gaps and celebrating the power of sisterhood, humor, and cultural heritage in the process of growing up and finding belonging.
Grant amount: $15,000
This project by Khyenle, a Tibetan bronze art center and platform for artists in Derge County, Sichuan, aims to merge traditional Tibetan bronze craftsmanship, the Lima bronze technique, with contemporary environmental concerns by teaching artists how to create snow leopard sculptures with recycled cans. This initiative not only highlights the rich cultural legacy of the Himalayan regions but also promotes sustainable practices and raises awareness about wildlife conservation. By transforming discarded materials into artworks, the project seeks to inspire society to embrace recycling and honor traditional craftsmanship.
Grant amount: $18,000
The two-channel video installation by renowned Dharamsala-based filmmakers Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam is a contemplative project exploring the Buddhist concept of interdependence through the lens of humanity’s destructive dominance over nature and in an increasingly disrupted world. The work will be filmed over one year in the Himalayan region of North India, capturing the traditional rhythms of farmers, shepherds, miners, and spiritual practitioners living in harmony with their landscape, while also documenting the intrusive impacts of human activities on this natural order. The installation will weave together contemporary footage with archival materials and recordings of Tibetan Buddhist monks debating impermanence and interdependence.
Grant amount: $12,000
This feature-length documentary follows Yeshey as she returns to Bhutan’s Khoma village to explore the traditional Kishuthara silk-weaving technique practiced by local women who pass down this intricate craft across generations. The film captures both the material process of creating symbolic textiles like the kira (national dress) and the cultural, environmental, and social context in which this weaving tradition serves as a repository of embodied knowledge and familial transmission.
Grant amount: $18,500
Nepal-based artist Lujan Dongol’s project will reinterpret the ancient Buddhist concept of samsara for contemporary audiences, addressing how traditional depictions of the cycle of birth, suffering, death, and rebirth often feel disconnected from modern lived experiences. Motivated by personal experiences with loss and Buddhist teachings, as well as witnessing global issues like over-consumption and division, the artist aims to reimagine the Wheel of Life’s power to provoke reflection by bridging ancient wisdom with contemporary realities through playful yet reverent reinterpretation.
Grant amount: $5,000
Get the latest news and stories from the Rubin, plus occasional information on how to support our work.