A History of USK Galle: From a Sketch Walk to a Community Archive

USK Galle's recorded story is a sequence of mornings spent looking closely at a city. A collaborative sketch walk in December 2025 is followed by numbered meets in 2026, with photographs and credited drawings keeping those gatherings connected long after the sketchbooks close.

The earliest page: December 2025

The earliest event in the website's archive is the Galle sketch walk of 14 December 2025. Organised by Urban Sketchers Colombo in collaboration with the Collective for Historical Dialogue & Memory and ART'O'SAN Gallery, run by Sandeepa Vithanage, it brought a shared interest in drawing and place to Galle Fort.

The walk gives this history its starting point in the available records. It should not be confused with a confirmed formal founding date for USK Galle. What the archive does establish is a gathering, its collaborators, a meeting point at ART'O'SAN Gallery and a collection of photographs.

A numbered series takes shape

Sketch Meet #1 followed on 1 February 2026. Its description remembers a relaxed morning of walking, observing, drawing and sharing. On 8 March, Meet #2 continued the series with outdoor sketching and conversation.

Both gatherings used ART'O'SAN Gallery in Galle Fort as their meeting point. The gallery remains a recurring place in the completed event records: a common starting point for mornings whose subjects and individual drawings could differ.

What began around a shared meeting point grew through the simple rhythm of turning up, opening a sketchbook and looking together. Galle's streets, everyday activity and changing light gave each artist something different to notice. Sharing those pages helped turn individual drawing into a continuing community practice.

Keeping the drawings connected to people

The website brings together several kinds of record. The event pages preserve dates, meeting points and recaps. The gallery collects photographs. The artwork archive and artist profiles connect drawings to the people who made them.

These links are what make the archive useful. A reader can begin with a meet, find a drawing from that morning, then discover more of its artist's work. The community's history becomes something to explore through individual contributions, rather than a list of dates alone.

The website is developed by Kasun Miuranga, whose work brings these profiles, drawings and event records together in a community archive. Keeping the work connected to its makers gives each contribution a place in the wider story of USK Galle.

A story still being drawn

The story continues whenever someone opens a sketchbook, shares a drawing or joins a conversation about a place. Each contribution adds another perspective to a record shaped by the people who take part.

For current announcements, visit the events page or follow @urbansketchersgalle on Instagram. For the history so far, explore the archive and follow the drawings back to their makers.