The art workshops of the Kasauli Art Centre were situated at crucial junctures in the development of modern art in India. In 1974, Vivan Sundaram organized Group Exhibition 1974 with the work of Arpita Singh, Balbir Katt, Bhupen Khakhar, Gieve Patel, Gulammohammed Sheikh, Nalini Malani, Nagji Patel, Nilima Sheikh, Laxma Goud and Sundaram himself. In 1980, the Place for People exhibition with Sudhir Patwardhan, Gulammohammed Sheikh, Nalini Malani, Bhupen Khakhar, Jogen Chowdhury and Vivan, and a catalogue essay by Geeta Kapur, marked the significant shift towards figurative, narrative art that was rooted in local and particular contexts.
KAC also held medium-specific workshops; one on weaving was conducted by textile designer Kinari Lakhia in 1977, with Om Prakash, a professional weaver sent by the Weavers’ Service Centre to set up a pit loom in Kasauli for the resident artists as well as local craftspeople. In 1984, Vivan organized a three-week sculpture workshop with Seigfried Neuenhausen, K.P. Krishnakumar, Alex Mathew, Pushpamala N., N.N. Rimzon, Prithpal Singh Sehdev Ladi, Khushbash Sherawat, Ashokan Poduval and Ranjana Thapleyal, with Anita Dube as the resident art critic. The work of seven of these artists was curated by Vivan in the exhibition Seven Young Sculptors at the Rabindra Bhavan, Delhi in 1985. In 1986, KP Krishnakumar spent a few months at KAC on a residency working on sculptures for the exhibition Alekhya Darsan (1987).
KAC also hosted workshops with local artists and theatre persons from Himachal Pradesh. In 1988, Nalini Malani along with BV Suresh and Alex Mathew led a three-week long workshop sponsored by the Culture Department of the H.P government.
The intense friendships and commitment to collaborative practice within and outside of KAC resulted in projects such as Splash! a glass mural painted by Vivan, Bhupen Khakhar and Nalini Malani in 1988. ‘Figures of Thought’, a film by Arun Khopkar about this collaboration that was partly filmed in Kasauli, is on view in the gallery.
