Experiment with pottery and screen printing at this Chennai studio

Studio Serendip’s adult enrichment classes are designed to offer deeper artistic engagement, enable you to experiment with pottery, screen printing and more

Few places feel as aptly named as Studio Serendip. I wander into the airy inside-outside space and follow the sound of laughter to a lush, green lawn where a group of adults are getting their hands creatively dirty, spinning pottery wheels. The garden is in full bloom with bananas, ginger flowers and heliconias, with more colour splashes offered by brightly-hued fish in a koi pond.

The pottery students are the latest of over 280 adult learners who have enrolled for short, but focused, art courses at Studio Serendip, in Kotturpuram. The classes are all conducted by artists, and upcoming courses over the summer include pottery, screen printing, 3D sculpture and cyanotype.

Sara Vetteth started Studio Serendip in early 2021, after the first lockdown, as a way to restore some creative balance to the city. Vetteth is an artpreneur who also founded RainbowFish Studio, the in-school and after-school art programme, and the non-profit Indian Art and Design Educators Association.

As for Studio Serendip, Vetteth is clear about its DNA — no one-day courses or art birthdays, for example. This is a space for adult enrichment classes that offer deeper artistic engagement, not one-off experiences. “Studio Serendip belongs to the artist,” says Vetteth, who designed it as a safe space where artist-teachers and adult-learners come together to explore their creativity.

Each course is 10 sessions long, either once or twice a week, and costs about ₹1,200 per session. Says Vetteth, “At the end of a course, learners will have the skills and confidence to continue to build on their learnings."

This is true for Shrishti Selvam, freelance artist/graphic designer, who enjoyed learning “the entire process of screen printing, down to the last detail, over my five days there”. She has since bought the necessary materials to continue printing at home.

The reasons for doing an art enrichment class are often just to unwind. Dr. Vignesh Srinivasalu, who works at ICMR – National Institute of Research in Tuberculosis, says pottery classes are “extremely therapeutic and help me take my mind off everything else.”