Voluntary Artists Studio Thimphu

The impressive Voluntary Artists Studio Thimphu is hidden away on the top floor of a not-so-impressive building on Chang Lam. After negotiating several flights of betel-stained stairs you emerge at the study, which can be incredibly busy with after-school and weekend classes in drawing and painting for young artists. The goal of the studio (which accepts donations) is to use Bhutanese artistic values to create both traditional and contemporary works and to provide vocational training. There’s a small library and coffee shop where budding artists are encouraged to congregate. Art by the students and instructors is sold in the exhibition spaces in the studio and in the Art Shop Gallery in Clocktower Sq.