Shantiniketan is a neighbourhood of Bolpur town in the Bolpur subdivision of Birbhum district in West Bengal, India, approximately 152 km north of Kolkata. It was established by Maharshi Devendranath Tagore, and later expanded by his son, Rabindranath Tagore whose vision became what is now a university town with the creation of Visva-Bharati.
Jorasanko Thakur Bari in Jorasanko, North Kolkata, West Bengal, India, is the ancestral home of the Tagore family. It is the birthplace of poet Rabindranath Tagore and the host of the Rabindra Bharati University campus.
Abanindranath Tagore was the principal artist and creator of the "Indian Society of Oriental Art". He was also the first major exponent of Swadeshi values in Indian art. He founded the influential Bengal school of art, which led to the development of modern Indian painting. He was also a noted writer, particularly for children. Popularly known as 'Aban Thakur', his books Rajkahini, Buro Angla, Nalak, and Khirer Putul were landmarks in Bengali language children's literature and art.
Visva-Bharati is a public central university and an Institute of National Importance located in Shantiniketan, West Bengal, India. It was founded by Rabindranath Tagore who called it Visva-Bharati, which means the communion of the world with India. Until independence it was a college. Soon after independence, the institution was given the status of a central university in 1951 by an act of the Parliament.
Nandalal Bose was one of the pioneers of modern Indian art and a key figure of Contextual Modernism.
Suchitra Mitra was an Indian singer, composer, artist exponent of Rabindra Sangeet or the songs of Bengal's poet laureate Rabindranath Tagore, professor, and the first woman Sheriff of Kolkata. As an academic, she remained a professor and the Head of Rabindra Sangeet Department at the Rabindra Bharati University for many years. Mitra was a playback singer in Bengali films and was associated for many years with the Indian People's Theatre Association.
Benode Behari Mukherjee was an Indian artist from West Bengal state. Mukherjee was one of the pioneers of Indian modern art and a key figure of Contextual Modernism. He was one of the earliest artists in modern India to take up to murals as a mode of artistic expression. All his murals depict a subtle understanding of environmental through pioneering architectural nuances.
Ramkinkar Baij was an Indian sculptor and painter, one of the pioneers of modern Indian sculpture and a key figure of Contextual Modernism.
Kalpathi Ganpathi "K.G." Subramanyan was an Indian artist. He was awarded the Padma Vibhushan in 2012.
Nilima Sen was a famous Rabindrasangeet singer.
Raman Siva Kumar, known as R. Siva Kumar, is an Indian contemporary art historian, art critic, and curator. His major research has been in the area of early Indian modernism with special focus on the Santiniketan School. He has written several important books, lectured widely on modern Indian art and contributed articles to prestigious international projects such as the Art Journal, Grove Art Online or The Dictionary of Art, Oxford University Press.
The Last Harvest was an exhibition of Rabindranath Tagore's paintings to mark the 150th anniversary of Tagore's birth. It was commissioned by the Ministry of Culture, India and organised with the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA). It consisted of 208 paintings drawn from the collections of Visva Bharati and the NGMA. The exhibition was curated by art historian R. Siva Kumar. Asia Art Archive later classified the exhibition as a "world event".
Kala Bhavana is the fine arts faculty of Visva-Bharati University, in Shantiniketan, India. It is an institution of education and research in visual arts, founded in 1919, it was established by Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore.
Paintings of Abanindranath Tagore is a book on Abanindranath Tagore's paintings by art historian R. Siva Kumar. It is widely considered as a landmark book in the Indian art scene that brings together a large corpus of Abanindranath's work for the first time. It fulfils a glaring lacuna in the picture of this master of modern Indian art.
The Last Harvest: Paintings of Rabindranath Tagore is a book on Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) and his paintings edited by R. Siva Kumar. In 2011 it was produced in conjunction with the traveling exhibition The Last Harvest: Paintings of Rabindranath Tagore.
Santiniketan: The Making of a Contextual Modernism was an exhibition curated by R. Siva Kumar at the National Gallery of Modern Art in 1997, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of India's Independence.
The following is a list of notable people associated withVisva- Bharati University and/or Santiniketan, a neighbourhood in Bolpur city in West Bengal, India:
Cheena Bhavana, of Visva-Bharati University, founded in 1937, is a centre of Sino-Indian cultural studies located at Santiniketan in West Bengal, India. Its reputation as a center promoting historical study and modern relations between the two countries was built by such figures as Rabindranath Tagore and Tan Yun-Shan. The library is known for a major collection of Chinese books and journals, especially Buddhist scriptures and texts.
Sangit Bhavana, of Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan, started functioning as a part of Kala Bhavana in 1919 and as a separate institution in 1933. It was established by the Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore.
Jamuna Sen was an Indian artist, known for her design work in a variety of mediums including Batik and Alpona as well as developing, in an Indian context, a variety of traditional crafts from across the world. She was a pioneer in establishing the practice of Batik in India in modern times. Daughter of Nandalal Bose, a central figure in modern Indian art, she was brought up in the artistic and intellectual milieu of Santiniketan and made significant contributions in the field of design.
