AMP: Artists' Meeting Place and Resource Collective

Grant of USD 500
awaits all selected artists, writers, and creative persons for the international artist residency on the banks of Ganges and foothills of Himalayas, in Haridwar, India.

There are 6 themes for the 6 month period from 01 Jul to 31 Dec 2017. Most of the opportunities will be available to the selected artists, irrespective of a theme, across the 6 months. An artist can apply for any continuous 28 days, cutting across the calendar months.

A River on Shoulders: Kanwar Pilgrimage
04 – 31 July 2017

Sanskrit & Babylon: Inspirations from Languages, Art, Culture
01 – 28 August 2017

Death Enables Birth: The Drama of Earth
03 Sep – 30 September 201

Celebrations +++: Oktoberfest: Aachman of Celestial Ganges
01 – 28 October 2017

Wahe Movember!: Scribe’s Block Impressions
01 – 28 November 2017

Decemberists!: Margharita, With A Straw
03 – 31 December 2017

COSTS
365 Haridwar offers a grant of only USD 500 to each selected artist for a residency of 28 days. The balance amount is to be arranged by the artist concerned.

365 Haridwar works to create additional and newer sources of funding for an artist who wishes to stay for more than 28 days. Further, newer value-adds can be looked at.

365 Haridwar provides an in kind support, based on specific situations, as if the artist is a friend and family.

ARTIST PAYS
The fee for a single occupancy is given below.
28 days USD 1450
07 days USD 500
01 day USD 80

The typical residency period is 4 weeks. An artist may choose to stay for a block of any continuous 28 days within the period 01 July to 31 December 2017.

The week-long stay is meant for those artists who are already participating with another residency programme within India / region and wish to add a variety.

A day long stay isn’t encouraged.

FEE INCLUDES
The fee covers the following.
* Personal room
* Shared studio
* Options to work at other cluster-locations
* 3 meals, 2 herbal tea + snacks
* Sachet tea/coffee 24hrs
* Daily small basket of fresh flowers
* Towels, bedding
* Travel within city
* Music guidance
* A private visit to 365 Haridwar by a senior lady Ayurveda doctor, every 3rd day

* Walking / bicycle tours of the city involving ashrams, inns, temples, ghats and ancient sites will be routinely organised.
* Facilities and orientations for Yoga, meditation, and wellness are at extra charge.
* As a second priority, other tours that can be considered at extra charge and on special requests are – tiger jeep safari, river-rafting on rapids, and hiking – all of these are within 25 kilometers of 365 Haridwar.

FACILITIES
Facilities available at 365 Haridwar are listed below.

1. Within premises of 365 Haridwar -
a. Library – A small library with books on arts and
spirituality is within the premises. There is a small section of books signed by authors, for example, official biography of Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson, Indra’s Net by Rajiv Malhotra, British Kumaon – Garhwal by R.S. Tolia, the first chief secretary of Uttarakhand, etc.

b. On line art gallery - 365 Haridwar is building an online
digital art gallery of visual art relevant to Haridwar and
Ganges. It features digital copies of - century old paintings of Haridwar, sculptures at Vatican / Rome inspired with Ganges. It has 3 sections – old art work, art by contemporary artists, and art by residents at 365 Haridwar.

c. Local music instruments (conch, damru, manjira, etc.)

d. Wood working tools

e. Specific culinary art

f. Specific herbal art

g. Other facilities available are the ones that can be found in a common modern office environment.

In future, contigent upon funding, 365 Haridwar may obtain a 3 D printer

2. Within cluster –

a. Installations may be considered for exceptional requests

b. Metal casting of small sculptures.

3. Outside cluster -

a. Conditional access to a Braille printing press

b. Conditional access to telescope / space orientation

INDIVIDUALS
Individuals preferred; duos and groups also welcome.

PARTNERS & FAMILY
Following persons who are accompanied by an artist are invited to stay with the artist on a twin-shared basis.
* A resident can come with a non-artist partner as long the partner also aims to be involved with arts in some way.
* A child of age between 6 and 12 will be charged only 50%
* An accompanied and dependent senior citizen will also be charged only 50% 365 Haridwar doesn’t have a prior experience of receiving a person with disability. The premises have not be reviewed with a disability angle. Still, the largest room at the ground floor can be made available to an accompanied person with disability. Though nestled amidst forests, river, and mountains, Haridwar town is semi-rural. The terrain in the cluster is largely plain, except for the areas proximal to Ganges.
* An accompanied person with a managed infirmity can be considered.

ABOUT HOST ORGANISATION
AZIMVTH Ashram is a non-profit located on the banks of Ganges and foothills of Himalayas at Haridwar, India. It aims to improve shared futures using the ancient heritage as catalysts. This is achieved through the flagship programme of an international art residency called ‘365 Haridwar’. Another programme ‘My Yoga’ weaves customised spirituality with art.

AZIMVTH brings together ancient & future, global & local, and art & spirituality.

Each participant is encouraged to make her own agenda from these strands.

ABOUT RESIDENCY PROGRAMME
365 Haridwar brings newer perspectives to art residencies. What it focuses upon and offers makes unique value additions.

The approach is to identify opportunities presented due to
specificity of time, space and consciousness (in the increasing order of importance) in the context of 365 Haridwar. 365 Haridwar provides cues and leaves it to an individual participant to make her own interpretations and combinations of these three.

1. TIME:
Three sets of time based events (observations and celebrations) have been merged to create the residency programme.

a. Traditional Indian calender
b. Common calendar used world-wide
c. United Nations calendar

2. SPACE:
From the merged calendar of observances and celebrations, ideas that are unique and the most relevant to the space that 365 Haridwar occupies are used as cues to creativity. In terms of 'space' 365 Haridwar has three identities.

a. CLUSTER
The selected events are special to the Space and location of the residency.

365 Haridwar is located inside a century old cluster, spread over several square-kilometres. The cluster comprises of adjoining and related yet independent entities seeded by the Arya Samaj (an Indian reformist) movement. Originally the entities were structured on the four ashrams or stages of life. Gurukul Kangri University (one of the 45 central universities out of a total of about 750 recognised universities in India) – for student-life, Arya Nagar (inside which AZIMVTH is situated) – a residential area for householder-life, Arya Virakt Vanprasth Ashram – for those who are no more engaged with conventional work, and finally – Arya Sannyas Ashram – for those who have renounced everything in life. All of these four separate campuses have survived, albeit with time induced modifications.

The museum for archaeology, located inside the cluster, houses some rare statues, coins, paintings, manuscripts and arte-facts from Harappa culture (c. 2500–1500 BC).

The cluster has its own captive meditation and bathing ghat (sort of jetty / platform) upon Ganges that is off the tourist-pilgrim grid. A ladies fire-invocation temple is adjacent to AZIMVTH Ashram and Ganges flows about 100 metres away.

There are some other entities also within 500 metres of AZIMVTH. For example, Sri Aurobindo Ashram, an old language promotion centre, and the original Patanjali Ashram where 2 of the 3 founders of Baba Ramdev’s Yoga centre still reside in, is also next to the university.

b. GEOGRAPHY:
The holy Ganges system rolls down the Himalayas and merges to become a mighty river entering the plains after Haridwar, the ancient town that hosts the cluster.

The fertile Indo-Gangetic plains support the largest
concentration of human beings any where on Earth.

With the height of about 7 km, Nanda Devi is the highest
Himalayan mountain peak that lies entirely in India, in the
Uttarakhand state of which Haridwar is a part. Nanda Devi and The Valley of Flowers are both on the UN World Heritage List.

Uttarakhand has large continuous forests. The oldest national park is situated in the state. Some tigers are man-eaters.

In Uttarakhand, India shares borders with China (Tibet) in north east and Nepal in south east.

The first railway-train in India operated in the Haridwar
district from Roorkee to Piran Kaliyar.

c. ANCIENT HERITAGE:
Many other parts of India have a similar or even better
geographical advantage. But the most important aspect of the
space/location of 365 Haridwar is the ancient heritage.

Ganges is holy to Hindus. Over 10 million people visit Haridwar in the period of a month (July / August) for an annual rite. In terms of sheer numbers of gathering of human beings anywhere in the world, this is second only to the Kumbh festival which happens every 12 years in Haridwar. The next one is in the year twenty-twenty-one.

After a person departs this world, the family comes to immerse ashes in Ganges at Haridwar. The Hindu genealogy registers are maintained by hundreds of hereditary priests in Haridwar. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Utah, USA maintains a digital copy of a small portion (about 3.5 million records) of these records.

Ganges and Haridwar find worthy mentions in ancient Hindu
scriptures. Haridwar, like Babylon, literally means ‘Gate to
God’. Lord Shiva, the main deity of the Hindu Trinity, lives in the Himalayas and accordingly the region of Haridwar and
Uttarakhand is also known as Dev Bhoomi (God’s Land). Lord
Shiva is also the god of dances. His son Ganesha is the god of arts.

An aura of spirituality, ancient Vedas and sages made Haridwar and the region a centre of Gurukul system of education in antiquity. Haridwar – Rishikesh is proposed to be the only heritage twin city of India. The twin city is the unofficial Yoga capital of the world. In December 2016, UNESCO inscribed Yoga on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

Sanskrit language, the common-root of the 22 official languages in India, is state language only of Uttarakhand amongst 30 states and union territories of India.

Ayurveda, the traditional Indian medical system developed here ages ago. Accordingly, Haridwar hosts dedicated universities for Sanskrit language and Ayurveda.

This millennia-old heritage of learning has made Haridwar a
centre of modern education. Though still a part of the Haridwar district, 25 km away from 365 Haridwar lies the first engineering college of India. At a similar distance, but in the other direction, lies AIIMS, the premier institute for medical education. These form part of the Indian equivalents of Ivy League. Many other firsts in education in India / British empire are associated with the region.

The heritage of Haridwar has had major implications for Hindus, India, and the world. In 2004, the Supreme Court of India upheld the imposition of ban on non-vegetarian food in the integrated religious townships of Haridwar, Rishikesh and Muni ki Reti. Some sects of ascetics allegedly have different life-styles.

With hundreds of Ashrams in Haridwar, divinity, spirituality and arts are in the air.

Since millennia, Haridwar and the region has attracted people from across India and the world. Mark Zuckerberg (facebook)joined a steady stream of visitors to the region who have already become, or are in the process of becoming, celebrities. Some of the others who benefited from their journeys in Haridwar / region are Steve Jobs (Apple), Larry Page (Google), Jeffrey Skoll (eBay), Uma Thurman, Julia Roberts, Beatles etc.

3. CONSCIOUSNESS:
The word AZIMVTH is a stylised form of the word Azimuth. A 360 degree view relates to a circle. The counter-part for a sphere is Azimuth. This consciousness for widening ones horizons guides the programmes at 365 Haridwar. Conscious efforts are made to utilize the opportunities of time and space in a manner best suitable to each individual participant. This could be done in many ways, some of which are suggested below.

a. A creative person experiments and widens his horizons in a dialogue within himself.
b. She is exposed to interact with other forms of arts and
crafts.
c. She may also synchronise with other sectors beyond arts.

“Traveller or pilgrim of the inner world,
Fortunate art thou to reach our brilliant air
Flaming with thought’s supreme finality.
O aspirant to the perfect way of life,
Here find it; rest from search and live at peace.”