Community on George Supreeth

How communities learn

Thu, 26 Feb 2026 10:43:03 +0530

I’ve been thinking about how social learning is such a contrast to formal, structured learning systems.

I am a fairly experienced educator. I have worked with a diverse group¹ of students over the last three decades. I am also the co-founder of what is arguably the oldest on-location drawing community in India, which has taught me a lot on how people learn in informal and unstructured ways.

This community does not ask people to register for drawing events. It charges no fees, proposes no frameworks—it simply announces a new venue each week, and people turn up to draw. This social process of drawing together, it turns out, provides a powerful learning method for members of the community.

Attentional Farmers Markets

Thu, 24 Jul 2025 12:25:01 +0530

In his book, The Siren’s Call, Chris Hayes proposes an idea he calls Attentional Farmer’s Markets. He suggests this as a means by which we may reclaim our diminishing attention in a world that attempts to constantly steal it.

On Sunday mornings, I sketch with a group called Penciljam. We are a community that meets to draw on location, and have been doing this every week for a decade and a half. These drawing sessions are quiet, almost meditative affairs. People are engrossed in their sketchbooks for an hour or two, drawing, while the noise of the world around them drops to a whisper. There are other communities like this. I participated in writing sessions with a group called Write Club, which operates around a similar discipline. People write stories around shared prompts in silence.

Drawing away from Mindlessness

Thu, 20 Mar 2025 12:25:01 +0530

There is a group in Bangalore that gathers on Sundays to draw. They fill their sketchbooks with subjects that most people wouldn’t consider worthy of attention—landscapes, buildings, trees, vehicles, animals and people going about their daily lives.

Sometimes a passerby notices them at work, and asks, “what will you do with these drawings?” The assumption is that the drawings must be important—an object of value. Surely, if drawing takes hours of work, such labour must attract a price.

Education as Drip irrigation

Tue, 02 Apr 2024 12:25:01 +0530

I am part of a drawing group that meets every Sunday to draw our city. We’ve been doing this for a decade and a half now, and I have learned to always carry an extra sketchbook and additional drawing material with me during these sessions. This is because there is almost always a curious child who ambles over to peek into our sketchbooks.

Seeing full-grown adults drawing out in public must be an unbelievable sight for children, especially the little ones. Drawing is considered a hobby in Indian society, something that children dabble with and eventually grow out of. I love the look of astonishment on their faces when they realize that there are adults who take drawing seriously enough to draw, out in public.