[7] In the coming years stalwarts like Benode Behari Mukherjee and Ramkinkar Baij became associated with the college, and in time gave a new direction not just to the institution but also to modern Indian painting.

Subsequently, they developed in the art arena of Santiniketan, the three pillars of ideas – Nandalal Bose, Benode Behari Mukherjee and Ramkinkar Baij.

[12] The exhibition, brought together about a hundred works each of the four modern Indian artists, namely Nandalal Bose, Rabindranath Tagore, Ram Kinker Baij and Benode Behari Mukherjee on the centre stage and put the Santiniketan art movement into focus.

[12] R.Siva Kumar argued that the "Santiniketan artists did not believe that to be indigenous one has to be historicist either in theme or in style, and similarly to be modern one has to adopt a particular trans-national formal language or technique.

He invited sculptor Sarbari Roy Choudhury, Ajit Chakraborty, graphic artist Somnath Hore and painters Sanat Kar and Lalu Prasad Shaw to join Kala Bhavana as teachers.

These stalls have artworks made by the students and teachers ranging from calendars to craft items, diaries, stationery, fashion jewelry, paintings, prints, saras (clay plates), and ceramics, wood and metal sculptures for sale at affordable prices.”[15] The college has an art gallery, Nandan, exhibiting sculptures, frescoes and murals.

[18] Kala Bhavana has 17,000 original art works by eminent Indian and Far-Eastern masters, and is now seeking outside support for preserving and displaying these.

[18] Nandalal Bose became the first principal in 1923 and was followed by artists including Benode Behari Mukherjee, Ramkinkar Baij, K. G. Subramanyan, Dinkar Kaushik, R. Siva Kumar, Somnath Hore and Jogen Chowdhury.

[19][20][21][22] Amongst others who distinguished themselves in the art arena of Santiniketan were Gouri Bhanja, Jamuna Sen, Sankho Chaudhuri and Sanat Kar.

It included Bani Patel, Gauri Bhanja, Jamuna Sen, Amala Sarkar, Sumitra Narayan, Vinayak Masoji, Dinanath Bhargava, Kripal Singh Shekhawat, Jagdish Mittal and others.

[29] Satyajit Ray, the legendary film maker, studied here in 1940-1941, under Benode Behari Mukherjee, and later made a noted documentary on his teacher, The Inner Eye (1972).

In August 2019, his son, Xufangfang, who had come on a follow-up visit, said that he received inspiration from the creative environment at Visva Bharati.