The Rubin announces the recipients of its first round of grants that support artists, creatives, and scholars that are expanding awareness and understanding of Himalayan art globally, and the rich cultural legacy and living traditions of the greater Himalayan region.
As part of the first award cycle, 17 projects were selected from close to 150 applications from 30 countries. The grant sizes range from $3,000–$25,000, depending on the scale and needs of each project, with total funding at $200,000.
Selected projects will advance and generate further knowledge of this developing area of focus through new exhibitions and research, documentation of historic art and architecture, digital resources and multimedia projects, and much more.
The Khasa-Malla kingdom ruled parts of Tibet, Nepal, and India from the 11th to the 14th century and embraced both the Tibetan and Indic worlds, as well as Hinduism and Buddhism. This project will research primary sources about the history of the kingdom, making them available on an open-source platform, and lead to research articles about the history of the kingdom and its artistic traditions.
Amount awarded: $15,000
This research project centers around how the climate changes that particularly affect Himalayan communities find resonance in a millennium-old festival during which Machchhindranath is worshiped. This deity, venerated in different contexts, is known to bring the monsoon rains, bountiful harvests, and overall well-being, as well as protection from catastrophic events and suffering.
Amount awarded: $10,000
Okubahal is located in the Kathmandu Valley is believed to date back to the sixth century. The history of this Buddhist monastery rich in religious artifacts, unique architecture, and cultural practices will be researched and documented in an online publication, capturing the site’s architecture, history, and collections.
Amount awarded: $20,000
Worshiped in the Kathmandu Valley as Bungadyah, Avalokiteshvara/Bunga Lokeshvara, or Rato Machindranath, the deity at the center of the annual festival in Patan expresses the deep assimilation between various traditions. The research about the origin and meanings of the festival will be captured in a graphic novel aimed to provide education to younger audiences.
Amount awarded: $9,000
Declassified U-2 spy plane aerial imagery from the late 1950s to early 1960s sheds light on Buddhist and Bonpo monasteries destroyed during the Cultural Revolution and offers unprecedented insight into the architectural landscape of Tibet during a pivotal era. The project will present an exhibition, publication, and digital database with identified sites.
Amount awarded: $15,000
Designed as the dynastic monastery for the House of Namgyal and kingdom of Sikkim, the 20th-century murals at the Tsuklakhang Monastery were executed by a master artist from Shigatse, Gyantse Ula. This project provides photographic documentation and research on the murals as well as the development of didactics for visitors to the site.
Amount awarded: $7,500
This exhibition project focusses on the world-renowned Himalayan monastic temples of Tabo in India’s Spiti valley. Famous for its frescos, scroll paintings, murals, and cliff-faced caves, Tabo’s main temple is built as a walk-in horizontal mandala, with life-sized sculptures and hundreds of paintings that date back to the 10th century. The exhibition showcases comprehensive high-resolution printed images of the temple interiors.
Amount awarded: $10,000
Part of a larger research and publication endeavor about the arts of Nepal, this project aims to photographically document important sites and works of art throughout the Kathmandu Valley. Places and areas like Pashupatinath, Deupatan Hadigaon, Dhwakha Baha, and Chabahil Baudhanath are of historical importance for the systematic study of Nepal’s traditional art and architecture.
Amount awarded: $7,500
Travel grant for PhD research.
Amount awarded: $3,000
Travel grant for PhD research.
Amount awarded: $3,000
Entangled Lives is a documentary film project by Indian filmmaker Avi Kabir that delves into the rain-soaked hills of the eastern Himalayas, where isolated villages have adapted to the region’s challenging monsoon climate. These communities have forged an eco-friendly and enduring solution to crossing swollen streams and rivers: the living root bridges.
Amount awarded: $12,000
California-based artist Pema Namdol Thaye is a specialist in creating highly intricate mandalas, and has created several large-scale ones, which take up to three years to complete. The current project aims to create a mandala dedicated to the female wisdom deity Vajrayogini.
Amount awarded: $25,000
Thekchhen Pema Chholing Monastery (Salleri, Solukhumbu, Nepal), is a center of Mahayana Buddhism and provides a vital space for Buddhist practice, arts, and education. The project consists of a multi-day symposium that showcases, teaches, and preserves traditional arts, making them more accessible to the local community and positioning the monastery as a center for cultural preservation and artistic exchange.
Amount awarded: $15,000
Tibetan Canadian filmmaker Kunsang Kyirong will study Tibetan objects and photographs housed at the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and create a film that includes work with Tibetan community members around the objects, aiming to challenge and avoid stereotypical representations of Tibet and Tibetans. The film will be part of the exhibition Entangled Territories.
Amount awarded: $17,000
Goa-based filmmaker Milann Tress Joh has traced the courses of the rivers Parbati, Beas, Tirthan, Pabbar, Giri, Satluj, Baspa, Spiti and Indus, following changing architecture as she moves up higher into the Himalayas. Capturing the change of crafts, materials, and motives on the journey along the rivers, the artist will employ magic-realist storytelling and the film will be conceived as a six-channel video installation.
Amount awarded: $15,000
The two Nepal-based artists aim to capture the rich dance tradition in Nepal through a body of painted works which will be shown in an exhibition. Researching relevant traditions in temples, religious sites, or as part of larger jatras (festivals), the works not only aim to capture the different types of dances at festivals and different methods, but also document the ornaments and dresses worn by the dancers.
Amount awarded: $12,500
The Nepal-based artist aims to document all major religious ceremonies involving chariots, sketched entirely in ink and pen and reminiscent of 19th-century chronophotography, thereby preserving the techniques, material, and methods used by the artisans. Since the skill sets to construct the chariots were passed to the younger generations by the elders and does not exist in any form of written or illustrative manuscript, her artworks can serve as an important artistic documentation.
Amount awarded: $2,500
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