Is This the Same as the Ministry of Culture's Scholarship for Young Artists?

It is not, and searching the phrase will bring back the central scheme first. The Ministry of Culture runs Scholarships to Young Artists in Different Cultural Fields, a countrywide scheme for artists in advanced training; the Tamil Nadu award is a state prize decided inside two colleges. The two differ on every operative term. | Feature | Tamil Nadu scholarship for young artists | Scholarships to Young Artists in Different Cultural Fields | |---|---|---| | Run by | Tamil Nadu Oviya Nunkalai Kuzhu, Department of Art and Culture | Ministry of Culture, Government of India | | Who can apply | Final year BFA and MFA students at the two Government Colleges of Fine Arts | Artists aged 18 to 25 trained under a guru or institution for at least five years | | Amount | Rs 3,000 for BFA, Rs 5,000 for MFA | Rs 5,000 a month | | Tenure | A single award in the final year | Two years, paid in four equal six monthly instalments | | Awards each year | 26 | Up to 400 | | How the winner is picked | Recommendation of the college Principal | Interview before an expert committee constituted by the Ministry | Source: Department of Art and Culture, Press Information Bureau

Can a Final Year Fine Arts Student Apply to the Central Scheme as Well?

The central scheme's published conditions turn on age and on five years of training under a guru or institution, not on where the candidate studies, and visual arts is one of its recognised fields (Press Information Bureau). It is a separate application, to a different government, judged by interview. Neither the Kuzhu's manual entry for this scholarship nor the Ministry's reply in the Lok Sabha says anything about holding both in the same year (RTI manual, Department of Art and Culture), so put that question to the Ministry before counting on two.

What Else Does Tamil Nadu Offer a Young Artist Outside These Two Colleges?

A fair amount, and none of it needs a college seat. At the state level exhibition the Kuzhu runs, 30 junior artists below 30 years of age are given Rs 10,000 each with a certificate of appreciation (Department of Art and Culture). District art societies run an age graded set of awards on top of that, with the Kalai Ilamani for artists of 18 years and below and the Kalai Valarmani for those between 19 and 35, each carrying a purse of Rs 2,000, a certificate of appreciation and a shawl to the value of Rs 500, selected by a committee headed by the District Collector (RTI manual, Department of Art and Culture).

Does the College Age Limit Apply to the Scholarship?

No. The 23 year and 26 year ceilings are entry conditions for the BFA at these colleges, applied at admission (Government College of Fine Arts, Chennai). The scholarship's own qualification is about being in the final year and being judged outstanding, with no age written into it (RTI manual, Department of Art and Culture).

How Much Does the State Actually Spend on This Every Year?

Rs 90,000, split across around 26 students at the two colleges (Department of Art and Culture). For scale, the Kuzhu spends Rs 7.50 lakh a year on the awards at its state level art exhibition and Rs 5 lakh a year on grants for one man and group shows, so the student scholarship is the smallest line it runs (Oviya Nunkalai Kuzhu schemes, Department of Art and Culture). Cumulatively it has still reached far more people than the annual figure suggests: by the 2015-2016 policy note, 568 degree students and 78 postgraduate students had received it (Policy Note 2015-2016, Department of Art and Culture).

What Happens if the Principal Does Not Recommend a Student?

The published rules give no appeal. Recommendation by the Principal is the operative step, and the department describes the awards as made on that recommendation (Department of Art and Culture). A student who believes the process was not followed can ask the department for the records under the Right to Information Act, which the manual prices at Rs 50 for the application and Rs 2 for each A-4 or A-3 page copied (RTI manual, Department of Art and Culture).

Who recommends the students for the scholarships under this scheme?

The Principals of the Government College of Fine Arts, Chennai and Kumbakonam recommend the students for the scholarships.

How many scholarships are awarded to outstanding students in the final year M.F.A. program at the Government College of Fine Arts, Chennai?

Two scholarships of ₹5,000/- each are awarded to outstanding students in the final year M.F.A. program.

What is the scholarship amount for outstanding students in the final year B.F.A. program at the Government College of Fine Arts, Kumbakonam?

Ten scholarships of ₹3,000/- each are awarded to outstanding students in the final year B.F.A. program.

What amount is awarded to outstanding students in the final year M.F.A. program at the Government College of Fine Arts, Kumbakonam?

Four scholarships of ₹5,000/- each are awarded to outstanding students in the final year M.F.A. program.

How many scholarships are awarded to outstanding students in the final year B.F.A. program at the Government College of Fine Arts, Chennai?

Ten scholarships of ₹3,000/- each are awarded to outstanding students in the final year B.F.A. program.

Are undergraduate students eligible for the scholarships under this scheme?

Yes, undergraduate students in their final year of B.F.A. at the Government College of Fine Arts, Chennai or Kumbakonam are eligible.

Is there any specific academic performance requirement for eligibility?

The scheme does not mention specific academic performance requirements for eligibility; however, students are expected to be outstanding in their respective programs.

Are there any age restrictions for applicants?

The scheme does not mention any age restrictions for applicants.

Is there a minimum attendance requirement for eligibility?

The scheme does not mention any minimum attendance requirement for eligibility.

Can students from other disciplines within the colleges apply for these scholarships?

The scholarships are specifically for students of Fine Arts programs (B.F.A. and M.F.A.), so students from other disciplines within the colleges are not eligible.

Scholarship

Scheme to Award Scholarship to Young Artists(STASTYA)

Q: Where should applicants submit the duly filled and signed application form along with the documents?

Applicants should submit the application form to the Member Secretary, Tamil Nadu Oviya Nunkalai Kuzhu, Directorate of Art and Culture, Chennai.

Cash

State/ UT

Tamil Nadu State Government Tamil Nadu myScheme record

Eligibility

The applicant should be a student.

Region

Tamil Nadu

Award

Cash

Deadline

Not published by the source

Overview

About STASTYA

Rs 90,000 is the whole of it. That single figure covers every rupee Tamil Nadu hands out under the Scheme to Award Scholarship to Young Artists in a year, shared between 26 students on two campuses, at Rs 3,000 for a final year Bachelor of Fine Arts student and Rs 5,000 for a final year Master of Fine Arts student (Department of Art and Culture). Read it as a prize with money attached rather than a maintenance grant, and the rest of the scheme falls into place.

The award belongs to the Tamil Nadu Oviya Nunkalai Kuzhu, the state body set up in 1975 to promote, protect and propagate painting, sculpture and printmaking, and merged into the Department of Art and Culture in 2008 (Oviya Nunkalai Kuzhu schemes, Department of Art and Culture). Its name is spelt both ways in official print, Oviya on the department's scheme pages and Ovia inside the same department's manual under the Right to Information Act, so a search that returns nothing under one spelling is worth repeating under the other (RTI manual, Department of Art and Culture).

Of the eight heads the Kuzhu lists in that manual, this is the only one written for people already enrolled in a course. The others reach practising artists: the Kalaichemmal title, award money at the state level traditional and contemporary art exhibitions, grant-in-aid for an artist's own show, six month fine arts classes for the public, and the Kuzhu's own book publishing (RTI manual, Department of Art and Culture).

Its reach is narrow on purpose. The state runs exactly two Government Colleges of Fine Arts, one in Chennai and one in Kumbakonam, and no third campus can qualify (Department of Art and Culture). The Chennai college began as the Madras School of Arts in 1850, founded by the surgeon Alexander Hunter, and was upgraded from a school of arts and crafts into a college in 1961 (Government College of Fine Arts, Chennai). Its counterpart at Kumbakonam started on 13 September 1887 as a Chithrakala Salai, was run by the municipality for about eighty years, and came under the Department of Art and Culture when that department was formed in December 1991 (Government College of Fine Arts, Kumbakonam).

The Rs 90,000 is not a pot divided by need. It is a fixed count of awards at each college. Chennai gives ten of the Rs 3,000 awards to final year BFA students and four of the Rs 5,000 awards to final year MFA students; Kumbakonam gives ten and two (Policy Note 2023-2024, Department of Art and Culture). Multiply those out and they come to exactly the Rs 90,000 the government allots, which is why the count sits at around 26 students a year rather than moving with applications (Department of Art and Culture). Listings that put four MFA awards at Kumbakonam and two at Chennai have the two colleges the wrong way round; the department's scheme page and its 2023-2024 policy note agree with each other.

The scheme has run long enough to have a running total. The department's policy note for 2015-2016 recorded that 568 degree students and 78 postgraduate students had been given the scholarship up to that point, at the same two rates the department publishes now (Policy Note 2015-2016, Department of Art and Culture).

Who runs it

Provider

Tamil Nadu State Government

State / UT Government

Art and Culture Department

At a glance

Key details

Level	State/ UT
Scheme type	Not published by the source
Category	Skills & Employment
Beneficiaries	Individual
Benefit type	Cash
Application mode	Offline
Direct Benefit Transfer	No
Tags	Artist, Student, Award, Financial Assistance, Scholarship
Source record	myScheme, 2026-07-08official-site· 2026-07-08

Calendar

Important dates

The scheme runs on the college calendar, not on a published one of its own. The scheme record carries neither an opening date nor a closing date, and the department describes the award only as something given every year (myScheme).

For its other schemes the Kuzhu advertises, issuing a press release in the newspapers before applications open (RTI manual, Department of Art and Culture). This one skips that step, because the eligible group is already known to the college, so the notice travels through the Principal's office and nowhere else. Final year students are better off asking that office early in their last year than waiting for a public advertisement the rules do not provide for.

Who can apply

Eligibility criteria

The department's manual under the Right to Information Act puts the test in a single line: the applicant should be among the best final year students in a degree or postgraduate course at the Government College of Fine Arts, Chennai or Kumbakonam (RTI manual, Department of Art and Culture).

That fixes the window tightly. The BFA runs four years across eight semesters and the MFA two years across four, so a student sits inside the eligible band for one academic year and is outside it before and after (Government College of Fine Arts, Chennai).

Discipline is whatever the campus teaches. Chennai carries painting, sculpture, print making, visual communication design, industrial design in textile and industrial design in ceramic at BFA level, with print making the one subject that has no MFA above it. Kumbakonam is narrower, teaching painting, sculpture and visual communication design, and its own page says the scholarship reaches outstanding final year students in all disciplines (Government College of Fine Arts, Kumbakonam).

There is no age bar in the scheme, no income ceiling and no published marks threshold. The age limits students do meet at these colleges, 23 years for general category candidates and 26 for SC and ST candidates, belong to BFA admission and say nothing about the award (Government College of Fine Arts, Chennai).

Domicile is the one requirement the Kuzhu attaches to its whole scheme list rather than to this award in particular. The RTI manual introduces the Kuzhu's schemes with a line that artists who are natives of Tamil Nadu, or domiciled in the state for at least five years, can take part in them (RTI manual, Department of Art and Culture). The scholarship's own entry repeats no such clause, and both colleges publish separate fee lines for candidates from other states and from other countries, so a student without Tamil Nadu domicile should put the question to the Member Secretary in writing rather than assume either way (Government College of Fine Arts, Chennai, Government College of Fine Arts, Kumbakonam).

The applicant should be a student.
The applicant should be studying in the final year of B.F.A. or M.F.A.
The applicant should be studying at the Government College of Fine Arts, Chennai or the Government College of Fine Arts, Kumbakonam.

Who cannot apply

Exclusions

Nothing is barred here that is not already barred by the eligibility line, and the Kuzhu's manual entry for the scholarship carries no disqualification clause at all. The interesting bar is the one next door: for the Kuzhu's grant-in-aid of Rs 5,000 towards an artist's own exhibition, applications from students of fine arts pursuing their studies are not considered, along with belated applications and applications sent without enclosures (RTI manual, Department of Art and Culture). Being enrolled at Chennai or Kumbakonam opens this door and closes that one for as long as the course lasts.

Continuation

Renewal conditions

Nothing here carries into a second year. Eligibility attaches to the final year of a programme, and the Kuzhu's entry describes a one time scholarship amount rather than an instalment plan or a continuing sanction (RTI manual, Department of Art and Culture). A student who takes the Rs 3,000 in the final year of the BFA and later returns for the MFA is applying afresh in a different programme, against a different pool of four or two awards, not renewing anything.

What you get

Award & benefits

Set against what these colleges actually cost, the sum is not trivial. Tuition at the Government College of Fine Arts, Chennai is Rs 1,000 a year for the BFA and Rs 1,500 a year for the MFA, with SC and ST students exempted (Government College of Fine Arts, Chennai). Kumbakonam charges Rs 1,000 a year through the BFA and the first year of the MFA, and Rs 1,350 in the second MFA year, again with SC and ST students exempted (Government College of Fine Arts, Kumbakonam). So the Rs 3,000 award is three years of BFA tuition at either college, and the Rs 5,000 award clears both years of the MFA at Chennai with Rs 2,000 left over.

It is also not the only thing the state puts into these students' hands. Chennai gives its fine arts students free art materials worth Rs 2,000 (Government College of Fine Arts, Chennai), and Kumbakonam gives free art materials worth Rs 2,000 in every academic year, for all disciplines in the BFA (Government College of Fine Arts, Kumbakonam).

The rates have held for a long stretch. The policy note for 2015-2016 lists Rs 5,000 for outstanding final year postgraduate students and Rs 3,000 for final year degree students (Policy Note 2015-2016, Department of Art and Culture). The note for 2023-2024 carries the same two rates, the same 26 beneficiaries and the same Rs 90,000 allotment (Policy Note 2023-2024, Department of Art and Culture). Anyone planning around this should treat the amount as a fixed constant rather than something that moves with costs.

Government College of Fine Arts, Chennai
Scholarship of ₹3,000/- to 10 outstanding students studying in final year B.F.A. (Bachelor of Fine Arts).
Scholarship of ₹5,000/- to 4 outstanding students studying in final year M.F.A. (Master of Fine Arts).
Government College of Fine Arts, Kumbakonam
Scholarship of ₹3,000/- to 10 outstanding students studying in final year B.F.A. (Bachelor of Fine Arts).
Scholarship of ₹5,000/- to 2 outstanding students studying in final year M.F.A. (Master of Fine Arts).

What to prepare

Documents required

Two things travel with the application, and only one of them is the student's own work. The RTI manual names the photographs of art works the applicant created and the recommendation of the Principal of the college concerned as the records to be enclosed, on the application form the Kuzhu prescribes (RTI manual, Department of Art and Culture). That list asks for no mark sheet, no income certificate and no community certificate, which is unusual for a state award. The portfolio is the evidence.

Photographs of artworks created by the applicants.

Step by step

How to apply

The application never goes to the department directly. Students of each college apply through their own Principal, on the form the Kuzhu prescribes, and the Principal's recommendation is what carries the file forward (RTI manual, Department of Art and Culture). The completed form and its enclosures are addressed to the Member Secretary, Tamil Nadu Oviya Nunkalai Kuzhu, at the Directorate of Art and Culture in Chennai (myScheme).

Students looking for a way to follow the file online usually land on the wrong page. The department does publish a Check Your College Application Status page, but it opens against a reference number issued by the department's college online application system, which is the admission route into these colleges (Check Your College Application Status, Department of Art and Culture). This scholarship has no reference number to enter: the scheme record puts the application mode as offline and lists no application link (myScheme). Ask at the Principal's office that forwarded the recommendation, then at the Directorate above it (Department of Art and Culture). If neither answers, the department's public information officer takes a written request under the Right to Information Act for a fee of Rs 50 (RTI manual, Department of Art and Culture).

1
Apply offline
The official links on this page lead to the application portal.

How winners are picked

Selection process

Selection is a recommendation, not a contest. The department states that the scholarships are awarded as recommended by the Principals of the respective colleges, which places the decision inside the college rather than at a state panel (Department of Art and Culture).

That marks it out from the rest of the Kuzhu's work. Its traditional and contemporary art awards go to artists whose entries a jury committee adjudges best after viewing every application received in time for a state level exhibition (RTI manual, Department of Art and Culture). This one carries no entry fee, no audition, no interview and no jury step in its published rules. The word those rules use is outstanding, and the Principal is the person applying it.

Fine print

Terms & conditions

The published terms are short. The application has to be on the Kuzhu's own prescribed form, routed through the Principal, and enclosed with the artwork photographs and the recommendation (RTI manual, Department of Art and Culture). The award is paid as cash and is filed offline from start to finish, which is consistent with a scheme whose file stays on paper between the college and the Directorate (myScheme).

Holding it does not cost a student anything else they are due. The Chennai college states that BC, MBC and SC or ST scholarships are provided as per government norms, and that this scholarship is given in addition to them; Kumbakonam separately lists the Backward, Most Backward, Adi Dravidar and Tribal scholarships alongside the Kuzhu award as things its students receive every year (Government College of Fine Arts, Chennai, Government College of Fine Arts, Kumbakonam).

Get help

Contact

The Directorate of Art and Culture sits at Tamil Valarchi Valagam, 2nd Floor, Tamil Salai, Egmore, Chennai 600008, on 044-28193195 and 044-28192748, and takes email at artandculture@tn.gov.in (Department of Art and Culture). Those are the current details. The RTI manual still prints the Kuzhu's own address as the Directorate of Art and Culture on Dr. D.G.S. Dinakaran Road, Greenways Road, Chennai, with telephone 24936136, and that is where it directs applications and lists its public information officer (RTI manual, Department of Art and Culture). The Member Secretary of the Tamil Nadu Oviya Nunkalai Kuzhu is the addressee for the application itself either way (myScheme).

For a question about one student's file, the college answers faster. Government College of Fine Arts, Chennai is at No. 31, E.V.R. Periyar Salai, Periyamedu, Chennai 600003, on 044-25610878, with email at fineartscollegechennai@gmail.com (Government College of Fine Arts, Chennai). Government College of Fine Arts, Kumbakonam is on Swamimalai Main Road, Mela Kottaiyur, Kumbakonam 612002, on 0435-2481371, with email at principalgcfa@gmail.com (Government College of Fine Arts, Kumbakonam).

Source

Official links

Guidelines Amount Of Scholarship myScheme (Government of India)

Questions

STASTYA – FAQ

Frequently asked questions

From the official scheme FAQ (myScheme)

Read this

Disclaimer

Scheme details are compiled from myScheme, the Government of India’s official scheme-discovery platform, and are reproduced without alteration. Amounts, deadlines and eligibility change between cycles, so always confirm on the official links above before applying. Expertie does not process applications or charge fees.

References

Sources

Department of Art and Culture – artandculture.tn.gov.in
RTI manual, Department of Art and Culture – tn.gov.in
Policy Note 2023-2024, Department of Art and Culture – cms.tn.gov.in
myScheme – myscheme.gov.in
Press Information Bureau – pib.gov.in