The Serenbe Institute presents, promotes, and facilitates a wide range of programs and events furthering its mission to cultivate our community’s creative, intellectual and ecological qualities.

Artist Residency
The Serenbe Community invites a limited number of talented mid-career and senior artists to spend time working and interacting with residents and our environment.  Painters, photographers, sculptors, writers and playwrights have enjoyed the beauty and creative solitude of the land, and the hospitality of Serenbe’s residents.

Among the talented artists who have been in residence at Serenbe are photographers Frank Hunter and Marilyn Suriani, painter/mixed-media artist Paul Villinski, painter/muralist Shannon Lake, playwright Valetta Anderson, novelist Haven Kimmel, video artist Scott Browning.  Atlanta artist Evan Levy created a temporary outdoor art installation, “Cellular Cosmogony” in 2007 in Serenbe.  In 2008 Shannon Lake created a permanent large scale mural that celebrates the natural beauty of Serenbe and the Chattahoochee Hill country.

Renowned painter Michael David was the first Distinguished Artist in Residence in Serenbe in 2009.  His year-long stay has been a time for him to develop The Greenhouse Project, recycling imagery of our collective histories into opportunities for reflection, learning and growth.

The Institute has hosted residencies by New River Dramatists, with support from the Mary E. Haverty Foundation, bringing to Serenbe working playwrights, actors, and directors for intense work sessions and public readings, all designed to strengthen the storytelling skills of both established and promising writers.

For more information, visit www.airserenbe.com

Visiting Scholars
The Institute’s Serenbe Fellows Committee sponsors residencies by eminent scholars, such as Dr. David Brain, a sociologist specializing in the character of New Urban communities, and Dr. Dan Pekarsky, professor in the Department of Educational Policy Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  Visiting scholars interact with Serenbe residents through presentations, workshops, and seminars.

The Environment
The Institute’s Environmental Issues Committee developed and implemented the community’s extensive recycling and composting program, and provides an important link to environmental and agricultural initiatives in the greater Chattahoochee Hills community.

Learning
Since its inception, the Serenbe Institute has initiated, facilitated and supported a wide range of educational projects and programs.  It has provided financial and technical support for local elementary schools and an important charter school initiative.  Institute funding has made possible art and theatre classes for young people in cooperation with the LaGrange Art Museum, Camp Serenbe, Serenbe Playhouse and the Serenbe Photography Center.

Community 
Integral to the Institute’s mission is building strong community.  To that end, it takes leadership roles in civic issues important to Serenbe’s residents, neighbors and visitors, including the design and development of an artists’ live/work community adjacent to the Serenbe Farm, and a community center designed by students from the Georgia Tech School of Architecture.  The Institute sponsors arts and culture “field trips” for residents and neighbors, and has begun an oral history of the community.  It is also an important forum for constructive dialogue and consensus building around civic issues and questions, making it a critical part of the Serenbe and Chatt Hills communities.

Serenbe Playhouse
In 2010 the Serenbe Playhouse presented its first season as the community’s professional resident theatre company.  Under the leadership of artistic director/founder Brian Clowdus and a volunteer community board, with support from the Institute and others, the Playhouse presents a diverse and eclectic body of work seeking to expand the connections between nature, culture and art that lie at the core of the Serenbe experience.  The Playhouse is rooted in community, striving to enhance the creative, intellectual and ecological cultivation of Serenbe and Chattahoochee Hill Country.   For complete information about the Serenbe Playhouse, visit www.serenbeplayhouse.com

Serenbe Photography Center
The state-of-the-art film and digital photography center opened in 2010 as a project of the Serenbe Institute in partnership with The Photographer’s Print Studio.  It provides a full menu of photography workshops for both professional and amateur photographers, including digital and traditional printing techniques, lighting, documentary, environmental and travel photography.  Founding director and noted photographer Kathryn Kolb and a committee of expert photographers from the Atlanta metropolitan region provided initial guidance and program development for the Serenbe Photography Center. The center offers full menu of photography workshops for amateur to professional photographers including digital and traditional printing techniques, documentary, nature, travel, business of photography, fine photography collecting and much more, with the nation's leading photographers, and photography experts.  The Photographers Print Studio is a lab resource where all photographers can make top-quality archival prints in large sizes in traditional color, traditional B&W and digital formats.  The lab facility is unique in the Southeast. For a listing of the Center’s workshops, membership benefits, and other information, visit www.serenbephotographycenter.com