Workshops
SAKS workshops are intensive, in-person, and built around direct transmission — from practitioners whose work represents the living edge of India's creative traditions. Not survey courses, not introductions. Concentrated time with someone who has spent a life in deep practice.
Workshops begin in 2027. Sign up below for early notification.
Notification
Specific workshops, dates, and practitioners will be announced in 2026. Sign up to receive advance notice — workshops are expected to fill quickly and priority notification goes to those on this list.
Leave your email and area of interest. We will write to you before workshops are announced publicly.
The premise
There is a difference between being taught about something and being in the room with someone who has spent forty years doing it. SAKS workshops are built around the second. The practitioner is the curriculum. What they choose to share, how they work, what they think is important and what they consider beside the point — these are the things that cannot be put into a syllabus and that a workshop, done properly, can transmit.
India has an unusual density of practitioners who carry traditions that are simultaneously ancient and living — master temple architects who work in Agama Shastra, Bharatanatyam teachers in the direct lineage of the Tanjore style, calligraphers working in scripts that predate print, environmental artists whose practice is rooted in Tantric iconography. Most of these practitioners do not teach formally. SAKS creates the conditions for them to do so, briefly and intensively, in Puducherry.
Workshops typically run for three to five days, in person at Villa Appavou or at the practitioner's own studio or site. Group size is kept deliberately small — between eight and sixteen participants. No prior background in the specific discipline is assumed, but a genuine curiosity and willingness to work is expected.
Vastu Shastra · temple architecture · Agama Shastra · iconography · the philosophical framework behind classical Indian spatial and visual practice. With master Sthapatis and scholars.
Calligraphy · letterform design · the history of Indic scripts · type design for digital applications · bilingual typography. With SK Mohanty and invited practitioners.
Site-specific practice · Tantric wall painting · mythological iconography in contemporary environments. With Harshvardhan Kadam at Villa Appavou or at his studio in Pune.
The Sugiura methodology — the book as object, image and text dialogue, cosmic patterns, Asian letterforms. With Prof Kirti Trivedi. Extended and intensive single-module sessions.
Indian classical music · composition · the relationship between sound, rhythm, and visual form. With practitioners connected to the SAKS Board of Advisors.
Speculative and forward-looking practice — how do India's deepest traditions inform design for a country of 1.5 billion in a post-AI world? Cross-disciplinary, provocative, unresolved.
Who teaches
Workshops are not yet confirmed. The practitioners below represent the kinds of people SAKS intends to bring to Puducherry — drawn from the institution's network of founding partners, board advisors, and their wider circles.
Specific workshops, dates, group sizes, and fees will be announced in 2026. Priority notification goes to those on the list above. There is no cost to sign up and no obligation to attend.
Any questions — Enquire →