Call For Posters

A Zubaan project to engage with the women’s and feminist movements through visual archiving, conversations and workshops

About the Project::

In 2006 Zubaan initiated a project called Poster Women. Conceptualised as a visual mapping of the women’s movement of the 1970s-2000s, Zubaan worked closely with over 160 organizations and individuals to source 1100 plus posters, which today form a freely accessible archive on the Zubaan website (provide link). The Poster Women collection has travelled to art galleries and women’s conferences and groups over a period of several years. Among the places covered are: Mumbai, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Chandigarh, Pune, Baroda, Bangalore, Pondicherry and others.

In 2026, to mark the 20th anniversary of the Poster Women collection, Zubaan will collaborate with Takshila Education Society to host multiple exhibitions, at Santiniketan, Goa, and Ahmedabad. For this, we are looking to source some new posters to address issues that were not covered in the original collection, and which reflect recent campaigns and movements (eg. caste, disability, minority rights and so on). We seek contributions from artists from Dalit, Bahujan, Adivasi/Tribal, Queer, Trans, Minority religion, and Northeastern communities. To apply please see the conditions below.

Details of the Call

Eligibility Criteria: 

1. Applicants must be below 40 years as of 30 November 2025.
2. The grant is open for women, queer, trans and noninary persons.
3. Applicants must fulfil criteria 2 and belong Dalit, Bahujan, Adivasi/Tribal, Northeast India and religious minority communities. 

Themes for the posters: Posters must reflect recent issues and campaigns in the feminist movement in India, especially at the intersections of caste, disability,  tribal rights, sexuality, climate change, #metoo, conflict (this is an illustrative list, submissions may address other issues that pertain to recent campaigns).

To apply:
You can submit a maximum of 5 posters. Please keep the following handy while submitting:

1. Scanned poster(s) in the dimensions 18” x 12” (or 45.72cm x 30.48cm) , 600 dpi resolution
2. Caption of the poster/images, marked accordingly
3. Any document with date of birth
4. Zipped folder of all posters, captions and document, titled FirstName_Poster
5. A short bio (no more than 100 words), as well as an explanation/story about the poster and why you chose to focus on this particular issue/campaign

Please click on the link here to apply

Deadlines for submission: 
11.59pm, 30 November 2025

Shortlist and Selection: 
All submissions will be screened by a selection committee. The committee’s decision will be final. Selected submissions will be informed by 10 December 2025. 

Posters that are not selected will also be kept at the exhibition(s) printed in A4 format with due credit to the artist and names of all artists who have submitted posters will be displayed at the exhibition(s).

Duration: 
January 2026-31 March 2027

Payment: 
An amount of Rs 5000 will be paid to the artist for each poster selected. The posters will be displayed in an exhibition of Zubaan’s Poster Women collection in Santiniketan, Goa and Ahmedabad through 2026 and 2027, and each will be credited to the artist concerned.

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Registered in 2003, Zubaan is a charitable trust based in Delhi. It follows in the footsteps of its parent NGO, Kali for Women, and has been an active participant, chronicler and publisher of the women’s movement since 1984. It works to increase the body of knowledge on women with a special focus on South Asia and India. Zubaan’s work in the past few years has been to achieve this goal through the 

publication of books and pamphlets, creation of archives (www.posterwomen.org ), organizing literary festivals and encouraging the exchange of authors from under-represented regions and communities, meetings and workshops to bring together multiple feminist perspectives. To read more, please visit www.zubaanprojects.org. 

FAQs:

• How many posters will be selected in all?
  A total of 10 posters will be selected. These will be displayed at all three exhibitions mentioned above.
  
• What will happen if my poster is not selected?
  If your poster is not selected, we would still like to have a printout available at the exhibition venues to show the range and variety of art being produced by young people from marginalized communities. We will also list the names of all artists who submitted designs at the exhibition. This will be done only if we have your consent.
  
• In what format must I submit my poster?
  Ideally the poster should be in portrait format. Should your art better lend itself to a landscape format, you may do that. The posters will eventually be displayed in a format that is approximately 18” x 12” so please keep this in mind when designing the poster. All artworks can be submitted digitally.
  
• Am I required to submit any other information along with the poster?
  Yes, we require a short bio (no more than 100 words), as well as an explanation/story about the poster and why you chose to focus on this particular issue/campaign.This will be displayed alongside the poster.
  
• Who owns the copyright to my posters?
  The copyright to your poster will remain with you. However we ask that you assign it to Zubaan for a duration of the exhibitions (January 2026-March 2027) starting from the date of selection and during this time you do not use it elsewhere. You may of course display it on your website or as part of your portfolio but please ensure that it is not available for use elsewhere until this time period is over. After that, you are free to use it elsewhere, but with due acknowledgment to Zubaan as the original commissioning entity and the exhibition of which it forms a part. For its part, Zubaan will display your poster/s on its PosterWomen archive.
  
• Will I be able to use these posters elsewhere?
  Not during the time it is travelling with Zubaan. Please see the above question for more details.”