Communities Connecting Heritage
Smithsonian Institution
This a cover of the in-person exchange agenda for Communities Connecting Heritage. Over the course of a year, Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage and World Learning worked together to hold a cultural exchange where a small group from the Institution went to West Bengal to learn about rural art practices. Five rural West Bengali rural artists explored Washington, DC where they were able to perform and spread their traditional arts in America. This exchange agenda was approximately fifty pages.
These designs were approved by the State Department and World Learning, a 501 international nonprofit organization that focuses on exchange programs and international development.
Inspired by the famous Pattachitra scroll painters of Kolkata, I created these coloring half sheets for children to color with natural materials like turmeric root, spinach, and various flowers.
A special thank you to Mamoni Chitrakar, a scroll painter from West Bengal whose generations of family and community has inspired and warmly welcomed me into their craft.
In this work, I chose to depict one of the well known Pattachitra scroll folk legends, “Maacher Biye” or Fish Marriage.
My friend Girish and I hanging on the National Mall. He's a Baul singer from West Bengal.
