GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — A new art studio in downtown Grand Rapids offers a space where customers can take a breath while working with clay.
Kendyl Arden started Selah Studio five years ago in Chicago. The studio Arden had been working out of closed during the pandemic, she explained, and the freelance artist needed a space to work. Eventually, she started teaching classes at the new studio.
Now, she’s moved the studio to West Michigan, opening Selah Studio about a month ago at 235 Division Street near Cherry Street in Grand Rapids
The studio offers workshops, private events and courses, all with an emphasis on mental health, Arden, who is also an art therapist, said.
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Selah Studio in Grand Rapids. (Nov. 17, 2025)
Selah Studio in Grand Rapids. (Nov. 17, 2025)
“A lot of what happens here is really influenced by my experiences with art therapy. This space is a community studio, it focuses a lot on how arts can foster wellbeing,” she said. “I do teach a lot of the process of art making, but I really try to emphasize that there’s benefits to art making outside of just creating beautiful works of art.”
She said her studio encourages mindfulness and process over product. Selah means “to pause,” she explained, adding that the hope is to offer a space where people can stop and take a breath.
All classes will have therapeutic elements, she said, emphasizing the intersection between art and well-being. That’s seen through offerings like the Kintsugi for Renewal course, which teaches the Japanese art of mending bowls with gold.
“(Kintsugi is) beauty from brokenness,” Arden said. “I think that’s something that people just relate to in general, this concept of taking messy pieces and turning it into something beautiful and into something new.”
Selah Studio in Grand Rapids. (Nov. 17, 2025)
Selah Studio in Grand Rapids. (Nov. 17, 2025)
Selah Studio in Grand Rapids. (Nov. 17, 2025)
Selah Studio in Grand Rapids. (Nov. 17, 2025)
Selah Studio in Grand Rapids. (Nov. 17, 2025)
There’s also the Clay and Calm course, which focuses on using a pottery wheel.
“I’ve repeatedly have had so many students walk out of classes saying, ‘This was so calming, this was so therapeutic,’” she said. “It’s just a very grounding, meditative process.”
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As she worked to move her studio to Grand Rapids, Arden said she was drawn to the location because the storefront, which was vacant at the time, had several windows and is located in a space that will get more foot traffic than her studio in Chicago did.
“Sometimes I’ll just sit up here and create, and I like watching people and people like stop and watch what’s happening in here as students are creating. So it’s just enjoyable, I really appreciate that about the space,” she said. “I was told it was vacant for three years, and I really like beautifying spaces and bringing life into a space that needs life.”
Things have gone smoothly since opening in Grand Rapids a month ago, Arden said, noting that she learned a lot while running the studio in Chicago, like how to get people in the door.
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“In Chicago it was very much trial and error,” she said. “Since we’ve been here, it’s picked up pretty fast, which is fun.”
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