the alpha workshops

Our newest fabrication shop produces handmade wallpapers and handwoven/hand-dyed textiles. Additionally, the shop offers decorative arts training to vulnerable community members who live with a visible or invisible disability and wish to experience the skill-building and mental health benefits of artistic practice in the classroom and studio.

The Alpha Workshops is an award-winning design and decorative arts studio founded in 1995 as a proactive response to the AIDS crisis in New York City. Modeled on the historic artisan guilds of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the studios seek to preserve traditional handcraft and provide a new model of economic development for at-risk individuals living with disabilities or other vulnerabilities. With nearly 30 years of expertise in art fabrication and interior product production, The Alpha Workshops continues to pioneer unique ways of working, teaching, creating, and collaborating that benefit the community.

A b rightly lit room filled with textiles, textile-making equipment, and work desks

capabilities

Custom-Painted Millwork, Furniture, And Cabinetry
Custom Wallcoverings Design And Fabrication
Mural Design And Installation
Custom-Painted Artworks
Interior Decor And Design
A man sits working at a textile loom in a gray room
News

programs

Dedicated to creating beauty and changing lives, The Alpha Workshops is the nation’s first nonprofit organization to provide decorative arts education and employment to adults with visible or invisible disabilities and/or other vulnerabilities.

The Alpha Workshops Studio School

Licensed by New York State, The Alpha Workshops Studio School (AWSS) assists adult vocational students with visible or invisible disabilities in reclaiming and refocusing their lives by embracing the powerful healing tools of meaningful work and creative self-expression.

Decorative Arts Techniques (DAT) is a 13-week curriculum in which students study the practice and current applications of various decorative arts techniques. DAT is designed to enable students to observe, comprehend, and analyze the foundational aspects of decorative art and the creative process. Students learn the fundamentals of color theory, traditional transfer and enlargement techniques, gilding, mural design, specialty painted finishes, and much more.

Weekly class activities prepare students to accomplish a range of projects from small accessories to large-scale murals. Instruction also includes work-readiness preparation, including resume building and mock interviews. The course culminates in a formal portfolio presentation during the final week of classes. Skills acquired during DAT support each artisan’s personal creativity, and form the solid foundation for a lifetime of professional practice.

A person presses a circular stamp onto a colorful pattern covering a large sheet of paper
A checkered textile emerges from a loom, with hands on either side

Studio Practice

Studio Practice welcomes at-risk adult participants who want to acquire artistic skills without a specific vocational focus. Weekly classes encourage participants to develop creative techniques while exploring tools and mediums associated with the Decorative Arts and Fine Arts. Working artisans guide students through commonly practiced techniques.

My Creative Future

My Creative Future (MCF) is an innovative arts program that provides vulnerable young adults ages 18-24 with the opportunity to explore the creative process through multiple visual mediums. Students cultivate and enhance artistic abilities that can be used in any professional art career or creative environment. Each participant is afforded full creative freedom and space to define and explore their own personal style in a safe, inclusive, working art studio.

MCF is designed for students of any artistic skill level, and new artists are always welcome.

A person sits on the floor, painting with watercolors, with art supplies nearby