The second History for Peace Museum Learning Series, brought to you in collaboration with Achi Association; designed and presented by DAG Museums.

‘Time Travelling through Art: From Plassey to Partition’ takes participants through the evolution of art in Bengal from the arrival of the first European painters in the late-18th century to the post-independence period. It encompasses the early phases in Bengal art, known as the Dutch Bengal style, the rise of the Bengal School, art practices at Santiniketan, visual depictions of the famine, and comes down to the turbulent '70s. Through these artworks we explore familiar landmarks of Indian history through the perspectives of artists, travelers, teachers and everyday people.

The artworks are from the collection of DAG’s museums – Drishyakala, Red Fort, New Delhi and Ghare Baire, Currency Building, Kolkata.

The module has two components:

A virtual viewing room and Zoom tour which has a selection of artworks that traverse these 200 years; A series of six Whatsapp video prompts for activities and discussions related to the artwork and the history.

Facilitators: Sujaan Mukherjee, Sumona Chakravarty.

Session 1:

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Session 2:

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Session 3

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Sujaan is part of the Education and Outreach department at DAG's Ghare Baire museum-exhibition in Kolkata. Although his academic research, based at Jadavpur University, is in urban history, Sujaan is inquisitive about the history of art, modernisms and the physical cultures. His activism is directed towards making museums and archives more accessible, and in 2015 he received an Archival Fellowship from IFA to work with the archives of CSSS, Calcutta.

Sumona is the founder of Hamdasti, a Kolkata-based arts platform for socially engaged arts practices. Her work is participatory in nature, engaging diverse communities over a long period of time and collaboratively intervening in public spaces.

Sumona is a graduate of the Srishti School of Art Design and Technology, Bangalore, with a Masters degree from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. She has been a Fellow in the ArtThink South Asia Program at Khoj, Delhi and at the Global Cultural Leaders Program, hosted by the European Union. She is currently the Deputy Director of Ghare Baire, DAG Museums at the Currency Building, Kolkata.