Our Global Sister Organization
ONE LANDSCAPE’S mission is to create collectives of conservationists, artists, activists, scientists, policy makers and others, working together to develop community-based conservation practices — protecting, healing and regenerating landscapes locally and throughout the world. ONE LANDSCAPE aims to reveal the nature of particular wild landscapes to larger audiences; to safeguard fragile ecological networks and habitats; to promote sustainable livelihoods; and to create cohesive identities for iconic landscapes whose ownership and management may be fragmented.
ONE LANDSCAPE was founded by Margie Ruddick, a landscape planner and designer known for her innovative approach to conservation, and Martin Brody, a distinguished composer, professor, and arts activist. The organization was inspired by the example of brothers William and Denzil De Souza, who saved the land preserved by the Institute, and from Margie Ruddick’s pioneering work with the De Souza family in creating the Shillim Institute and Retreat. ONE LANDSCAPE grew out of a desire to share the work that originated in the Shillim Valley with other like-minded organizations and communities around the world.
Performing Arts for Rural Youth Empowerment
Abhivyakti
Abhivyakti is a performing arts–based skill development pilot by the Shillim Institute that nurtures creativity, confidence, and self-expression among rural children in the Western Ghats region. Rooted in the belief that every child has a voice and story to share, it uses theatre, dance, vocal arts, and traditional instruments such as Pakhwaj and Dholki as pathways to self-discovery and community connection.
Organised across 22 villages in the Pawna catchment, the 21-day programme engaged 167 school students in immersive, inclusive training, often providing their first experience of structured creative learning. Abhivyakti addresses stage fear, low self-esteem, and limited exposure, while fostering teamwork, interpersonal confidence, and pride in traditional and classical Indian art forms.
Culminating in two public performances, the initiative demonstrates how the arts can catalyse empowerment, education, and social cohesion, advancing the Shillim Institute’s vision of the arts as a unifying and transformative force
Art Residency
The Shillim Institute Art Residency nurtures creative exploration, cultural exchange, and community engagement, fostering dialogue between art, ecology, and community in the Western Ghats. Guided by a “Local to Global” philosophy, it offers artists, architects, scholars, and environmental practitioners a contemplative space to explore relationships between culture, nature, and sustainable living.
Each year, a peer-nomination and interview process led by the Institute’s Board selects residents working in fields such as sustainable landscape design, ecological and heritage conservation, architecture, and visual communication, who receive full logistical and hospitality support. Hosted within the UNESCO-designated cultural landscape of Shillim, the residency offers up to three weeks of immersive engagement for reflection, research, and community interaction.
Evolving into a dynamic platform for cultural exchange and environmental awareness, the residency brings together diverse voices to reflect on art’s role in shaping ecological consciousness and collective wellbeing.
(8TH-18TH JANUARY, 2024)
Tanya Marcuse
Tanya began making photographs as an early college student at Bard College at Simon’s Rock. She went on to study Art History and Studio Art at Oberlin and earned her MFA from Yale. Her photographs are in many collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the George Eastman Museum. In 2002, she received a Guggenheim fellowship to pursue her project Undergarments and Armor.
(3RD-18TH FEBRUARY, 2024)
Ann de Forest
Ann de Forest is a writer whose work, fiction, non-fiction, and poetry, centers on themes of place. She is a contributing writer for Hidden City Philadelphia, co-editor of Extant Magazine, and author of Healing on the Homefront, profiles and portraits of home health care patients and their caregivers. Most recently, she is editor of Ways of Walking, an anthology of essays published by New Door Books in 2022. Her short stories, essays, and poetry have appeared in Noctua Review, Cleaver Magazine, Found Poetry Review, The Journal, Hotel Amerika, Timber Creek Review, Open City, and PIF. She has taught poetry to the elderly at Mercy-LIFE West Philadelphia for more than a decade. A Swim Pony Cross Pollination artist-in-residence in 2016, Ann walked the entire perimeter of Philadelphia with three other artists, initiating an ongoing collaboration to open up new conversations about civic space.
(1ST-7TH FEBRUARY, 2024)
Rohan Chakravarty
Rohan Chakravarty is an Indian artist, cartoonist, illustrator and naturalist. His "Green Humour" series was picked up by GoComics in 2013 making Rohan the first Indian cartoonist to be picked by a global comics distributor. Green Humour has been published as a book and as a series in two national newspapers. Art from Green Humour has been used for several conservation campaigns and publications by organizations such as WWF, The Wildlife Trust of India, the Nature Conservation Foundation, BNHS, The Humane Society International, The Arunachal Pradesh State Forest Department, The Karnataka State Forest Department, Birdlife International, Save our Seas Foundation, and the International Crane Foundation. Rohan grew up in Nagpur where he studied to be a dentist. It was here that he was introduced to the world of wildlife through a nature based outreach program conducted by Sanctuary Asia. He has been a fellow of the International League of Conservation Writers, since November 2015.
(6TH-24TH FEBRUARY, 2024)
Kushala Vora
Kushala Vora is a dreamer, community organizer and an interdisciplinary artist working in sculpture and drawing. In and through her practice she focuses on loosening the exertion of power on oneself, another and the landscape that we reside with. She does this by exploring materiality, dissemination of information in educational spaces, and the cultivation of habit.
(2023)
Erin Gee
Erin Gee is a pioneering American composer and vocalist renowned for her "Mouthpiece" series, where she treats the voice as a precision instrument of non-semantic sound. A Professor at Brandeis University, her accolades include the 2023 Herb Alpert Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the Rome Prize. Notably, she was named one of the 21st century's most influential composer-vocalists by The New Yorker and has received the Picasso-Miró Medal and a Koussevitzky Foundation commission for her groundbreaking contributions to contemporary music.
(2023)
Joel Gordon
An award-winning audio engineer and documentary producer, Joel Gordon has spent 36 years capturing diverse soundscapes—from Boston’s concert halls to the fields of Central Asia. A Grammy winner and creator of Art of the States, he specializes in early, new, and traditional music. His extensive field recordings preserve endangered languages and unique environmental soundscapes for Smithsonian Folkways and UNESCO hotspots.
(1st Jan to 21st Jan 20)
Elvira Clayton
Elvira Clayton, based in Harlem is a multidisciplinary artist whose work spans installation, performance, sculpture, and oral history. Deeply rooted in historical research, Clayton mines archives and slave-related documents to uncover hidden narratives of American slavery, bringing these forgotten stories to light to honor her own ancestors.
Born in Louisiana and raised in Texas, her diverse practice—which includes collage and assemblage—serves as a powerful bridge between archival research and contemporary visual storytelling.
(1st Jan to 21st Jan 20)
Sanju Jain
Sanju Jain is a multimedia artist from Madhya Pradesh whose work seamlessly blends traditional techniques with natural materials. Born in 1979, she earned her Master’s in Painting from Indore and now lives and works in Bhopal. Deeply inspired by nature, Jain uses paper pulp, clay, and natural pigments often sourced from her surroundings to create artworks rich in texture and authenticity.
Her paintings frequently evoke the organic beauty of sunrises and sunsets, expressing a deep emotional connection to the environment. By transforming natural elements into visual poetry, she captures both earthiness and emotion through her distinctive brushwork. Jain’s commitment to natural materials reflects a harmony between art and ecology, making her creations both sensorial and grounded. Continuously evolving her practice, she invites viewers into a world where nature, texture, and feeling merge into a uniquely resonant artistic language.
(18th Jan to 7th Feb 20)
Rebecca Walden and Constantine Baecher
Rebecca Walden and Constantine Baecher are New York-based dancers and choreographers whose work bridges ballet and contemporary expression. Rebecca began her career with Nevada Ballet Theatre and Columbia Classical Ballet, later performing with Armitage Gone! Dance, Terra Firma Dance Theatre, and Ballet Inc. Trained at Pavlovich Dance School, and Southeastern School of Ballet in Columbia, she creates work for New Chamber Ballet and Premiere Division Ballet. A Columbia University graduate, she merges movement with inquiry. Constantine, co-founder of the Copenhagen International Choreography Competition and former Royal Danish Ballet member, has created works worldwide, supported by the Danish Arts Council and Wilhelm Hansen Foundation.
(1st Jan to 21st Jan 20)
Sanju Jain
Sanju Jain is a multimedia artist from Madhya Pradesh whose work seamlessly blends traditional techniques with natural materials. Born in 1979, she earned her Master’s in Painting from Indore and now lives and works in Bhopal. Deeply inspired by nature, Jain uses paper pulp, clay, and natural pigments often sourced from her surroundings to create artworks rich in texture and authenticity.
Her paintings frequently evoke the organic beauty of sunrises and sunsets, expressing a deep emotional connection to the environment. By transforming natural elements into visual poetry, she captures both earthiness and emotion through her distinctive brushwork. Jain’s commitment to natural materials reflects a harmony between art and ecology, making her creations both sensorial and grounded. Continuously evolving her practice, she invites viewers into a world where nature, texture, and feeling merge into a uniquely resonant artistic language.
(20th Jan to 9th Feb 19)
Shatabdi Mallik
Shatabdi Mallik is a renowned Odissi dancer, teacher, and choreographer from Kolkata, trained under Guru Durga Charan Ranbir of the Deba Prasad Das Gharana. She holds degrees in Economics and an MBA while also excelling in athletics during her academic years. An empanelled artist with ICCR and the Ministry of Culture, she is also an 'A' grade Doordarshan artist. In 2001, she founded 'Shatabdi Nrityayan' to train Odissi dancers. Recognized with awards like the Parampara Award, she actively promotes Odissi through workshops and residencies.
(29th Jan to 18th Feb 19)
Jignesh Sheth
Jignesh Sheth is a professional musician, music composer, and multi-instrumentalist specializing in tabla and guitar. He is the disciple of a tabla legend, Pt. Anindo Chatterjee and Pt. Divyang Vakil. He has been performing on national and international stages and collaborating with musicians and kathak dancers from India and Europe. Additionally, he has established his own school of dance and music in Ahmedabad, India.
From 2021 to 2023, Jignesh Sheth worked as a Tabla Teacher-cum-Performer at the Jawaharlal Nehru Cultural Center, Embassy of India, Moscow, and as a Tabla Teacher at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory. In these roles, he contributed to the promotion of Indian culture in Russia as an artist selected by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR).
(2023)
Joel Gordon
An award-winning audio engineer and documentary producer, Joel Gordon has spent 36 years capturing diverse soundscapes—from Boston’s concert halls to the fields of Central Asia. A Grammy winner and creator of Art of the States, he specializes in early, new, and traditional music. His extensive field recordings preserve endangered languages and unique environmental soundscapes for Smithsonian Folkways and UNESCO hotspots.
Conservation Fellowship
(15 Jan - 15 July 2025)
Adhith M K
Adhith is a post graduate in Ecological Informatics from Kerala University of Digital Science, Innovation and Technology. His research integrates wildlife ecology with advanced computational approaches, focusing on acoustic monitoring, species behaviour, and conservation technology. He has conducted extensive fieldwork across diverse ecosystems and has experience in biodiversity assessment, remote sensing, GIS, Python, R, and deep learning. At Shillim Institute, he has led research on avian acoustic ecology in the Northern Western Ghats, developing data-driven tools to evaluate habitat restoration. He has a broader interests in wildlife conservation, ecosystem restoration, and sustainable development, with a commitment to advancing science-based conservation solutions
Analysing the Bird Species Distribution Using Regional Custom CNN Model for Evaluating Restoration Success in the Northern Western Ghats Landscape
As part of the Conservation Fellowship, a study was undertaken to develop an innovative sound-based monitoring system to understand how restoration efforts at Shillim are supporting the return of birdlife. Using a custom-built computer model, the project was able to identify 14 key bird species by their calls with over 90% accuracy, showing how technology can support nature-based monitoring in the Western Ghats.
The results clearly showed that restored habitats within Shillim support a greater diversity of birds compared to degraded areas. Forest cover in these restored zones also increased significantly, while agricultural land reduced, marking a successful shift toward natural regeneration. However, the study also drew attention to ongoing challenges such as noise pollution, which continues to affect bird communication even in recovering habitats.
By combining sound recordings, habitat data, and species observations, the research created a clear picture of how ecological restoration is supporting biodiversity revival across the landscape. The findings highlight the importance of continued restoration efforts and the potential of acoustic monitoring as a long-term, low-impact way to track ecosystem health.
Looking ahead, the fellowship opens the door for wider, year-round monitoring and the use of advanced technological tools to deepen understanding of how Shillim’s living landscape continues to recover and thrive.
(9 Mar - 15 Sept 2025)
Dr. Sangavi Dhanapal
Dr. Sangavi Dhanapal is a biodiversity researcher specializing in spider ecology, taxonomy, and conservation biology. Her studies have documented over 180 spider species from Salem District, Tamil Nadu, the first comprehensive record for the region, and continue to advance knowledge of arthropod diversity in the Western Ghats. At Shillim Institute, she investigates the biodiversity and ecology of spiders in the Sahyadri Hills, integrating molecular and field approaches to inform conservation.
She previously worked at the National Institute of Advanced Studies under Prof. Anindya Sinha, studying spider diversity in Assam, and gained international experience through research internships at the National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, Taiwan. Alongside her biodiversity work, she has researched carbon nanodots for biomedical applications. Dr. Sangavi has authored four peer-reviewed papers, two book chapters, and received awards for her research presentations.
Diversity and Distribution of Spiders in Sahyadri hills: A Natural and Altered habitat in Shillim Institute, Pune, Western Ghats
A detailed study of spider diversity was carried out across six different habitats of the Shillim landscape in the northern Western Ghats. Over the course of the study, nearly 500 individuals were recorded, representing 200 species across 25 families- an impressive 10% of India’s known spider diversity.
The findings highlight Shillim’s ecological richness, with natural habitats like shrublands, forests, and grasslands supporting the highest variety of species. Among these, the jumping spiders (Salticidae) emerged as the most dominant family, followed by orb weavers (Araneidae) and lynx spiders (Oxyopidae). Several species were documented for the first time in Maharashtra, and 26 species recorded are endemic to India.
Spiders play an important ecological role as natural pest controllers and as indicators of habitat health. The study’s results suggest that healthy, undisturbed ecosystems at Shillim provide essential niches for these invertebrates, further reinforcing the success of ongoing habitat restoration work.
This fellowship builds a strong foundation for tracking invertebrate diversity and deepening our understanding of how restored ecosystems sustain complex web-of-life interactions.
Thought Leadership Workshops
Engaging in an enriching exploration of the Shillim landscape, workshops emerge as vital forums, prompting thoughtful evaluation, strategic intervention, and subsequent impactful actions. These initiatives are meticulously crafted to cultivate a spectrum of benefits—ecological, social, and cultural—for a diverse array of stakeholders, with a dedicated focus on the thriving well-being of local communities and ecosystems.
Noteworthy Outcomes from Past Workshops
Defining Iconic Attributes
Animated conversations delved into the essential features of the Greater Shillim Landscape, contributing to a nuanced understanding of its distinctive characteristics.
Boundary Clarity
A clear delineation of boundaries was achieved, enhancing the visual lucidity of the Land Stewardship Program and ensuring its effective implementation.
Initiating In-Depth Studies
These workshops served as catalysts, igniting Anthropological, Socio-Economic, and Ecological studies. This foundational research now forms a robust basis for informed and strategic actions, underlining our commitment to the sustainable development of the Shillim landscape.
Maps
The Mapping Project unfolds as a comprehensive exploration, intertwining graphic depictions with compelling narratives of the routes. Within its canvas, individual works of art and research will unfold, revealing the distinctive attributes of the landscapes lining these paths and encapsulating the very essence of journeying through these terrains. This initiative is a tapestry that weaves together both the visual and the intellectual, inviting observers to immerse themselves in the richness of the surroundings.
The Mapping Project unfolds as a comprehensive exploration, intertwining graphic depictions with compelling narratives of the routes. Within its canvas, individual works of art and research will unfold, revealing the distinctive attributes of the landscapes lining these paths and encapsulating the very essence of journeying through these terrains. This initiative is a tapestry that weaves together both the visual and the intellectual, inviting observers to immerse themselves in the richness of the surroundings.
Beyond artistic expressions, the project extends its scope to include meticulous mappings of significant sites. These encompass meticulously restored historic landmarks, captivating exhibits, landscape features resonating with cultural importance for indigenous groups, ancient burial grounds, and other historical and archaeological gems. The project’s ultimate aim is to not only present a visual narrative but also to conduct a thoughtful evaluation. This assessment will delve into the feasibility and desirability of establishing an accessible path or network, inspired by the spirit of the Paumanok Path. Through this initiative, we aspire to craft a meaningful and accessible exploration of the paths less traveled, ensuring the preservation and celebration of their cultural and historical significance.