Paper Created by the River

Discover how to make paper from everyday materials and learn about the traditions of Indian art education.

The workshop will be conducted in Hindi with Russian translation.

For adults and children over 10 years of age. Children under 14 must be accompanied by an adult.

Each guest, including children, requires separate registration. Walk-ins are welcome, subject to availability.

In Santiniketan—where Rabindranath Tagore founded Visva-Bharati University—learning begins with observation. Classes take place outdoors: sitting beneath trees, students watch the clouds, the flow of the river, the changing of the seasons, and learn to notice the connections between humans and nature.

Ruma Chowdhury. Bihar Landscape, 2025

Artist Ruma Chowdhury, a participant in the exhibition The World in a Single Nest: Following the Way of Tagore, continues this tradition. A key part of her practice involves making paper from grass, straw, tree bark, and other plant materials usually considered waste. She gathers all of these on the banks of the Kopai River, which flows through Santiniketan. Its currents and constant seasonal changes have become a source of inspiration for Ruma—a way to reflect on memory, transience, loss, and preservation.

At the workshop, participants will examine samples of handmade paper brought from India, learn about the papermaking process, and try making their own sheet. Through experimenting with water and plant fibres, you can observe how chance becomes part of the artistic process.

Host

Ruma Chowdhury is an artist from Santiniketan, India. She completed her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at the Department of Painting, Kala Bhavana, Visva-Bharati University, founded by Rabindranath Tagore. In 2020, she launched the Paper Nest initiative, dedicated to researching local plant fibres and eco-friendly methods of paper production. She is the recipient of the JK Paper Award for the Arts (2025), and a fellow of the Musui Art Foundation (2020) and the India Artist Relief Fund (2021).