New Patron at New Patrons Initiative
by Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Kolkata

Title
New Patron

Location
New Delhi, India
Background
The Goethe-Institut is the cultural institute of the Federal Republic of Germany with a global reach.It promotes knowledge of the German language abroad and fosters international cultural cooperation. 
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Through its network of Goethe-Institutes, Goethe Centres, cultural societies and reading rooms, alongside its examination and language learning centres, it performs the principal tasks of cultural and educational policy abroad. The institute works in partnership with public and private cultural bodies, the German federal states and municipalities, and the corporate sector.
Project
Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Kolkata is initiating a project, titled "The New Patrons Initiative", for the first time in India. This is a project, where the civil society commissions an artist (a visual artist / architect / designer / writer / performer / musician etc.) to create for the community, addressing a pressing need to bring about a positive change. This is a powerful and revolutionary new approach, breaking the century old top-down tradition of arts patronage through privileged individuals or institutions. 

The institute strongly believes that the communities know best for themselves what their needs are and this project is about empowering the community with the help of a mediator to find an answer to their needs via the arts in the broader sense of the word, in order to bring about a positive change.

The guiding philosophy is that both citizens and artists have the intelligence and the courage necessary to highlight contemporary cultural necessities and act in consequence and that anyone who wishes so, alone or in association with others, can take responsibility for commissioning the artwork.

Goethe-Insitut/Max Mueller Bhavan Kolkata wants to encourage the emergence of a "New Patrons" program in India that joins comparable programs in many other countries on the European, African and American continent where the "New Patrons" are already active. To start this initiative with a first pilot project, the institute invites citizen groups to present a proposal that arises out of a collective need to bring about a sustainable change in their immediate physical surroundings through an artistic dialogue and a participatory process.
 
The "New Patrons Initiative" will support the selected group to bring the idea to fruition by:
  • a process of mediation that will help to better understand the local situation and the aims and ambitions of the project.
  • Facilitating contact with an artist who would be the best-fit for the idea.
  • Providing guidance and inputs during the process.
  • Assisting in fund raising.
Prerequisites
  • A group of individuals (whether organised as a group or not) residing in West Bengal, Jharkhand, Odisha, Bihar and Sikkim, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Nagaland, Manipur, Tripura and Mizoram in the north east o India.
  • At least two key members of the group must be based in the area of the proposed project.
  • All members of the group must be over 18 years of age.
  • If the group is a registered body, then it must not be more than 5 years old.

"New Patrons" are for example a group of children and teenagers living in a council housing complex, parents of nursery students, members of a municipality council, a group of students from an Engineering College, a group of astrophysicists, teachers and the principal of a college, inhabitants of a neighbourhood, school teachers, associations, staff members of a restaurant.
Selection Process
  • The applications will be shortlisted by the New Patrons Core Team.  
  • Selected applicants will be invited for interview (travel and hospitality provided).
  • The Jury comprising of specialists from the field will select the most original and impactful idea to start the New Patrons initiative in India.
  • All group members will meet the New Patrons Core Team to discuss the idea in order to identify the artistic input required, fine tune the tentative timeline, and arrive at the tentative budget.
  • The New Patrons initiative will collaborate with the group to identify the suitable artist for the idea and a funding plan.
  • The Core Team of the New Patrons Initiative will be available for guidance and advice throughout the duration of the project and shall also monitor the progress regularly.
  • Irrespective of selection, the confidentiality of the idea shall be safe-guarded.
Application Deadline
October 30, 2016
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