Pune: Maharashtra Cultural Centre calls for applications from aspiring artists for prestigious Rangasetu fellowship

Pune, 8th April 2025: The Maharashtra Cultural Centre in Pune is accepting applications for the prestigious Rangasetu Fellowship, aimed at encouraging young talent in the performing and visual arts. Pramod Kale, Coordinator of the fellowship, has announced that interested artists can apply until May 15th.

Pramod Kale said, “The Maharashtra Cultural Centre, a renowned institution in Pune, has initiated the Rangasetu Fellowship, now in its seventh year, to support young artists in Maharashtra. This fellowship aims to encourage emerging talent in theater, visual arts, music, and dance by providing a monthly stipend of ₹12,000 (annual total of ₹1,44,000) for one year.”

The center’s objective is to promote new and promising artists in the performing and visual arts, he added. Emerging artists from Maharashtra working in the fields of theater (writing, direction, acting), visual arts (painting, sculpture, installation, and more), music (vocal, instrumental, composition), and dance (all Indian classical dance forms, modern, and experimental dance styles) are eligible to apply for this fellowship.

This fellowship is aimed at building a bridge between budding artists and the professional field, so the name ‘RangaSetu’. The applications are called from all over Maharashtra. Under this fellowship, the Centre invites applications from across Maharashtra, reviews them, and selects a few individuals from each art discipline. The shortlisted artists are then invited to a two-day workshop in Pune, where they are prepared to present their projects. After the workshop, the Centre conducts interviews with the artists. A panel of four expert coordinators selects one artist from each art discipline, resulting in a total of four artists being finally selected for the Rangasetu fellowship. It is compulsory for each awardee to give a performance or exhibition at the Maharashtra Cultural Centre.

In addition to the four fellowships in theater, visual arts, music, and dance, the Centre also awards one fellowship to a visual arts project sponsored by Ajit Gadgil and one fellowship to a project with equal merit sponsored by Pramod Kale, resulting in a total of at least 5 and at most 6 fellowships.

The selection committee includes Dr. Chaitanya Kunte (Music), Dr. Nitin Hadap (Visual Arts), Dr. Ajay Joshi (Theater), and Dr. Meeta Pathak (Dance). The selected fellowship candidate will be awarded Rs. 12,000/- per month (total Rs. One lakh, Forty-four thousand).

It is compulsory for each awardee to submit a tri-monthly report of his/her creative work. Only after the assessment of the report by a committee of experts, the next installment of the fellowship will be released. So, the total amount will be given in four installments.

The applicant for this fellowship should be between 22 to 35 years old. The applicant should have formal or informal education/training in the art discipline. The applicant’s birth or education should be in Maharashtra or the applicant should have been residing in Maharashtra for at least 7 years. The applicant should have a minimum of 7 years of experience in his/her field and should be currently active in his/her art discipline. The applicant should not be engaged in any full-time job or other profession. These are the eligibility criteria for applying to this fellowship. The selected artists have to present their projects to an expert committee every three months, after which they receive a monthly stipend of ₹12,000. Kale also informed that the centre receives around 200-250 applications from across the state every year. Till today, the centre has awarded 30 artists with the Rangasetu fellowships.

The deadline for submitting applications for this fellowship is May 15, 2025. A workshop and interviews will be held in Pune on June 7-8. Following this, the names of the selected artists will be announced at a formal ceremony on June 29.It is important for the applicants to watch this video before filling up the applications – https://youtu.be/3YNz9Gn7g2M

The applicants should fill up the online Google form application on the links given below –

Theatre: https://forms.gle/eAVXKfPvqLrvmE8E7

Music: https://forms.gle/yNCghEgbKujzu7Qg8

Dance: https://forms.gle/4Up3yAqabTzoNvaL9

Visual art: https://forms.gle/nUFZrFixbzqtWzuH7

It’s mandatory to attach samples of previous work in the form of writings, photographs, video, audio, YouTube links, etc. with the Google form.