Open Call: Rembrandt Residency in India  

An initiative from the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in India 

India: a land of inspiration and transformation 

I ndia is a country that stretches the imagination and fuels creativity. Few places offer the same mix of rich traditions, diversity, cultural depth, contrasts, and constant transformation, making it a compelling environment for artists seeking to broaden their horizons. India offers not just a change of scenery, but a new perspective. With this open call, the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in India invites Dutch artists and artists based in the Netherlands to take part in a unique opportunity to live and work in India during a fully funded residency.  

Keywords are immersion, dialogue, and exchange. This residency aims to provide the time and support to explore new ideas, materials, and contexts in collaboration with Indian artists, thinkers, communities and organizations. The experience is intended not only to encourage creative practice, but also to foster long-term cross-cultural relationships. 

  Building forth on last year’s pilot this open call marks the launch of a new residency cycle in collaboration with the following host organizations: 

1. Artshila (Bihar) – 6 weeks
2. Hampi Art Labs (Karnataka) – 12 weeks
3. HH Art Spaces (Goa) – 12 weeks
4. Kattaikuttu Sangam (Tamil Nadu) – 12 weeks
5. Kochi Biennale Foundation (Kerala) – 6 weeks
6. MassArt - Durga Puja Art (West Bengal) – 7 weeks
7. Rajka Designs (Gujarat) – 6 weeks
8. The Design Village (Delhi NRC) – 12 weeks

Residency Overview 

Duration: 6-12 weeks, residency dependent.  

What will be provided 

Host Institution Support 

• Artistic and curatorial guidance 
• Tailored programs including studio visits, workshops, and excursions 
• Connections to Indian artists, academics, and institutions 
• Public engagement opportunities such as talks, open studios, or presentations 

Host Institutes 

1. Arthshila – Siwan, Bihar 

• Residency period: 8 November – 19 December 2026 (6 weeks)
• Theme: The artists chose to work with themes of gender, the agrarian crisis, community, familial memory, ecology, food, protest and social justice 
• Program: The residency combines studio-based practice with community engagement. Residents will have access to specialised studios in ceramics, printmaking, sculpture, and painting, supported by technical infrastructure and materials. They encourage workshops, presentations and interactions with local community members. For most residencies they also provide a platform to share their final presentation at an open day at Parivartan, Siwan followed by one at Arthshila Patna.
• Artist profile: The artist profile best suited for this residency includes emerging and mid-career artists interested in engaging with local contexts and communities, and whose work reflects an awareness of social, cultural, or ecological concerns. They  welcome practitioners working across disciplines such as painting, printmaking, ceramics, sculpture, and interdisciplinary forms. 
• More information: Parivartan (www.parivartanbihar.org) is an integrated rural community development initiative in rural Bihar which also houses studios for ceramics, printmaking, sculpture and painting. Arthshila Patna (www.arthshila.org), a multi-arts center, is designed to facilitate artistic expressions and curate creative experiences. The center houses an auditorium, multi-level exhibition spaces, a children’s experience center, workshop spaces, a bookshop, café, craft store, and more. With regular programs across visual arts, theater, music, dance, literature, and film, the center will offer a diverse and inspirational range of experiences and interactions.arts, theater, music, dance, literature, and film, the center will offer a diverse and inspirational range of experiences and interactions.

2. Hampi Art Labs – Hampi, Karnataka

• Residency period: 5 October 2026 – 22 December 2026 (12 weeks)
• Theme: Ceramics – Clay Practices and Cultural Landscapes
• Program: Exploring the rich intersection of ecology, heritage, and craft communities. Participants are encouraged to experiment with local clay sourcing, traditional firing methods, and process-led, tactile approaches, responding to the site and its communities.
• Artist profile: Open to early and mid-career practitioners in ceramics, sculpture, and other clay-based practices. We welcome those with a curiosity for experimental, field-based, and hands-on approaches. (The residency includes the contribution of one artwork to the host organization’s collection, to be selected in dialogue with the artist).
• More information: Hampi with its inspiring terrain, historic ruins, and vibrant craft traditions provides an inspiring backdrop to explore clay as both a physical material and a vessel of cultural and ecological knowledge. This offers a unique opportunity to work directly with materials, tools, and techniques rooted in the local landscape.

3. HH Art Spaces – Aldona, Goa

• Residency period: 15 September – 31 October 2026 (12 weeks)
• Theme: Counter Choreographies
• Program: Counter Choreographies is an invitation to artists working with performance and performative gestures including sound, drawing, video and workshop/collective learning models to produce new forms of embodied knowledge. These can draw from the afterlives of colonial histories, or histories preserved by people in forms such as stories or songs.
• Artist profile: HH Art Spaces are interested in hosting a variety of artists, including performance arts, love and sonic art, drawing and printmaking, research, and video and new media art. The host is particularly interested in artists that can address these themes of colonial history besides Dutch histories connected to Goa. This call is best suited to artists interested in research-based performance art and/or public interventions employing the body as a tool.
• More information: Aldona is a small village in North Goa known for its rich history, lush landscapes, and stunning coastline. Whether inspired by sunsets, temple designs, or traditional dances, Goa ignites imagination.

4. Kattaikuttu Sangam – Punjarasantankal village in the Kanchipuram district, Tamil Nadu

• Residency period: 1 October 2026 – 31 December 2026 (12 weeks)
• Theme: Performance art or theatre craftsmanship
• Program: Kattaikkuttu Sangam is a not-for-profit association dedicated to Kattaikkuttu (or Terukoothu), a traditional Tamil language-based physical and vocal ensemble theatre. During the residency, the artist will engage in the Sangam's daily activities and its special programs, using skills to enhance its mission and vision. Possible contributions could be:

1.  Creating short films documenting Kattaikkuttu’s knowledge and the life of students of the Diploma Course.
2. Designing innovative costumes and ornaments, addressing the new inclusion of women in this profession.
3. Assisting with photo and video documentation for the Repository
4. Filming the annual performing arts festival of the Sangam in February 2026.
5. Helping develop the Repository’s structure; editing video footage shot during the first three months of the course.
6. Sharing your knowledge through writing, music, dance, or performance.

• Artist profile: Applicants may include, but are not limited to, actors, musicians, researchers, dancers, curators, designers (especially of costumes and ornaments), (video) photographers, crafts persons, painters, archivists, writers, and academics. There is no age limit. Proficiency in English is required, while knowledge of Tamil is a plus. Experience and the ability to work independently are essential; they expect concrete and high-quality contributions in support of their work.
• More information: Kattaikkuttu is an experiential, sensorial and cognitive form of “doing” and “knowing”. The theater represents a unique body of pragmatic artistic knowledge. This knowledge is tacit; it cannot be found in textbooks and is deeply and intricately interwoven with the cultural context in which Kattaikkuttu is embedded. Applicants will be part of a Kattaikkuttu Diploma Course.

5. Kochi Biennale – Kochi, Keralam

• Residency period: 1 October – 15 November 2026 (6 weeks)
• Theme: Oraayiram Kadal / One Thousand Seas
• Program: Oraayiram Kadal/One Thousand Seas is a long-term research and development project extending from Kochi Biennale Foundation’s interest in oceanic worldings that challenge western, colonial, post-colonial and contemporary narratives. It is interested in speculative and/or embodied histories that approach lands and seas through the experiences of its people. It finds clues and offerings in stories and songs, legends and lies to contemplate and learn from about practices of survival and resistance, and those left out of mainstream, state prescribed narratives. It acknowledges the stories of those that traversed the ocean - stories, goods, beasts and seeds - and people that voluntarily or involuntarily took on uncertain seas. These cultures then produced were born out of possibility and resilience, but also the violence of the empire, opportunity and the ocean. Its tales survive in the languages and customs, food and mythologies of the old and new. This long-term research and development project explores oceanic world-making and thought-forms that challenge Western, colonial, post-colonial, and contemporary narratives. 
• Artist profile: Kochi Biennale Residency Program is open to all from all creative fields like visual artists, painters, sculptors, writers, musicians, theatre and film personalities, photographers, performers etc. and others connected with art. We particularly encourage applications from artists already engaging with these ideas, and who wish to deepen their practice through curatorial and research support rooted in the context of Malabar. The Kochi Biennale Foundation Residency Programme is a call to artists already engaging with these ideas who are looking to further their work with curatorial and research support located in the context of Malabar. The residency will culminate in an Open Studio exhibition that will run parallel to the Kochi-Muziris Biennale.
• More information: The residency Open Call is an invitation to engage with the complex legacy of Dutch Malabar, with the provocation to revisit these histories in our present, precarious times. Laid with clues along the coast, ramparts, signs and speculations offer both a productive rupture to reimagine local, situated stories and acknowledge the impact of this relationship. Here gates and graves, from Ponnāni to Quilon, Letters by a Dutch priest and a whole 17th-century Latin botanical treatise titled Hortus Malabaricus (amongst myriad sources) offer themselves for a renewed, considered, urgent and deeply human interpretation of this history. 

6. massArt (Durga Puja) – Kolkata, West Bengal

• Residency period: 1 September 2026 – 7 October 2026 (5 weeks) + mandatory participation of the Durga Puja festival (2 weeks, from 7 – 20 October 2026)
• Theme: Durga Puja (widely regarded as the world’s largest public art festival)
• Program: This 5-week residency in Kolkata, followed by a 2-week public presentation during Durga Puja (with mandatory artist presence), invites an international artist working in public art, immersive installation, architecture, or socially engaged practice to collaborate with an Indian artist within the dynamic ecosystem of Durga Puja Art, widely regarded as the world’s largest public art festival. The residency will culminate in a large-scale intervention for a community Durga Puja in Kolkata. Through collaborative making with local artisans, fabricators, and neighbourhood communities, the residency offers an opportunity to engage with temporary architecture, collective creativity, material experimentation, and the transformative public culture of the city.
• Artist profile: The profile of the artist massArt is looking for lies within the realm of public art, immersive installation, and collaborative spatial practice. These interventions have transformed Durga Puja into a global platform for experimental public art, encouraging cross-cultural dialogue through temporary architecture, material innovation, sound, light, community participation, and large-scale urban installations rooted in collective creativity.
• More information: Kolkata’s Durga Puja Art, recognised by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage, is widely regarded as the world’s largest public art festival. Over the last three years, massArt’s internationally acclaimed Preview Show of Durga Puja Art has facilitated collaborations between foreign and Indian artists, architects, artisans, and scenographers. massArt is a Kolkata-based non-profit platform promoting contemporary art, public art, architecture, and cultural exchange. 

7. Rajka Design – Ahmedabad, Gujarat

• Residency period: 1 December 2026 – 16 January 2027 (6 weeks)
• Theme: Pottery & clay
• Program: The residency will encourage artists to explore questions of portraiture, surface, translation, movement of images, memory, trade histories, archives, and contemporary social realities through their own practices. Each edition should include at least two public-facing moments: one midway through the residency and one at its conclusion. These may take the form of open studios, artist talks, workshops, conversations with local students, or informal exhibitions.
• Artist profile: The programme is dedicated to contemporary painterly practices in an expanded sense, including painting, drawing, works on paper, pigment-based experimentation, and materially driven forms that remain grounded in the logic of painting. Applications may include a portfolio, statement of intent, brief project proposal, and a note on how the artist’s practice relates to the themes of painterly exchange, historical translation, and contemporary context. Weekly critique sessions will be organised at DAAR, with invited interlocutors from India and the Netherlands joining physically or online. These sessions will allow artists to discuss works in progress, references, conceptual trajectories, and research directions. The intention is to create a rigorous but open atmosphere where differences in context become productive rather than merely representational. (The residency includes the contribution of one artwork to the host organization’s collection, to be selected in dialogue with the artist.)
• More information: The scope of the programme includes selection, residency hosting, studio access, daily working conditions, critical dialogue, workshops, public engagement, final presentations, and documentation. It is not limited to production alone; it also seeks to generate discourse, build institutional networks, and create platforms through which the selected artists can enter broader conversations in both countries. Artists will have dedicated time and space for individual practice while remaining in proximity to one another. This enables informal dialogue, observation of methods, and the emergence of shared or comparative questions around material, technique, and process. 

8. The Design Village – Noida, Delhi NCR

• Residency period: 1 August – 1 November 2026 (12 weeks)
• Theme: Water & Design 
• Program: The programme explores the relationship between water, ecology, culture, material systems, and future imaginaries through interdisciplinary design research and creative practice. The selected resident will engage with students, faculty, researchers, and collaborators through a combination of studio interactions, research dialogues, field engagements, and exhibition development. The residency encourages experimental and transdisciplinary approaches that respond to water as a social, ecological, political, cultural, and material condition. 
• Artist profile: This host is looking for a transdisciplinary multimedia designer or artist whose practice engages with water, ecology, material futures, cultural narratives, and speculative or systems-based thinking. The individual may work across physical and/or digital mediums, including installation, moving image, interaction design, sound, mapping, publication, or experimental material practices.
• More information: The residency is part of a cooperation between The Design Village and the TU Delft. It is developed in relation to the broader exhibition and research outcomes of the programme. The selected resident would work alongside students, faculty, and collaborators, contributing to the evolving discourse around water through creative inquiry, research, and exhibition-making. The residency will culminate in contributions towards the broader exhibition and research outcomes of the studio, while also allowing space for the resident’s independent inquiry and creative exploration.

Application Guidelines 

Who can apply?
Professional and/or upcoming artists based in the Netherlands working in any contemporary discipline, interested in India’s cultural or environmental contexts, open to experimentation and exchange. Duos and groups are not to be considered. All applications must be over the age of 18.   

Application must include (single e-mail, English, subject: RR_yourname): 

1. Filled-in Application Form Click Here   
2. Updated CV (max 2 pages) 
3. Portfolio of 3-6 artistic projects (link) 
4. Two reference contacts (Name, Relationship to the Applicant, Email, Phone Number) 
5. The application form includes a tentative project proposal, and artists are expected to provide a provisional budget covering anticipated travel, production, and other potential costs. (This is intended to help artists already think through the practical and material dimensions of their project at an early stage).
6. Please submit your application as a single PDF (maximum size: 10 MB) containing all the above requirements. Applications submitted as multiple files will not be considered; only the first attachment received will be reviewed.  

Deadline application: Sunday 30 May, 23:59 IST 

Health Advisory: Air Pollution in India 

India experiences high air pollution levels which may affect vulnerable individuals. Artists should take necessary precautions. Real-time air quality can be monitored via platforms like PurpleAir. 

 Selection Process 

Applications will be reviewed by a jury composed of representatives of the host institution and cultural officers from the Embassy. The host institution will take the lead in assessing artistic merit, and its evaluation and vote will carry primary weight in the selection process. Embassy representatives will assess applications in relation to broader policy considerations, including diversity, inclusion, sustainability, and related institutional priorities. Each host institution will host one participant. 

 Selection Criteria 

Applications will be carefully assessed based on the following criteria: 

• Only applicants that are Dutch or based in the Netherlands will be considered. We ask non-Dutch artists based in the Netherlands to highlight their connection to Dutch art or culture in their application.
• A strong and convincing track record of previous artistic or literary work.
• A clear and contextually relevant motivation for applying.
• Projects that demonstrate a genuine interest to engage with India and the specific residency environment.
• The applicant’s willingness and enthusiasm to actively participate in the local cultural ecosystem of the residency.
• A well-defined project proposal with potential for lasting artistic and cultural impact.
• Applications received after the deadline, regardless of the reason (including technical issues or time zone confusion), will not be considered.
• Only applications received in full before the deadline will be considered eligible for review.
• In cases where applications are assessed as equally strong across the above criteria, preference may be given to artists with no prior exposure to India; where applicants remain equally matched, the order of receipt of applications may be used as a fair and transparent tiebreaker.

Additionally, the selection process will consider diversity and inclusion, striving for gender balance among successful candidates. Please note that the final decision of the selection committee will be definitive and binding. 

 Questions? 

Contact: NDE-projects@minbuza.nl  

 We look forward to welcoming Dutch artists for a rewarding residency that fosters creativity, collaboration, and cultural exchange across continents. 

Why ‘Rembrandt Residency’? 

Rembrandt’s unique connection to India stems from his 17th-century drawings based on Mughal miniatures brought to Amsterdam by the Dutch East India Company (VOC). Around the 1650’s, he produced a series of 23 drawings of Mughal rulers and nobility. This is remarkable as Rembrandt seldom incorporated foreign influences, demonstrating how early global trade and cultural exchange influenced European art.