I really love the charitable concept of giving people the opportunity to gain knowledge and skills so they can be responsible for their own success and self-worth. As it's said, "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." I also love a charitable cause that sells beautiful, handmade items created by artisans that will benefit from sales. With those two tenants in action, it's no surprise that I think the
Alpha Workshops is a wonderful organization.
The Alpha Workshops is a New York-based non-profit organization that provides HIV-positive individuals with industry-specific training and employment in the decorative arts. Its mission is “to provide a new model of economic development for people living with HIV/AIDS or other disabilities.”
The org is comprised of a vocational school, the
Alpha Workshops Studio School (AWSS), and Alpha Workshops Studios, an AWSS-grad-staffed professional art and design atelier. Interior designers and architects can count the
Alpha Workshops’ Studios as a resource for decorative arts services like gilding, special finishes and art installations in addition to design goods like hand-painted wallpapers, custom casegoods, lighting, and accessories. You can purchase items through a designer or at
Alpha Workshops' Dering Hall storefront.
I'm especially excited by their wallpapers and the possibilities of creating custom designs! I just adore these two patterns,
Caper and
Oh So Faux...
These little
stools are awesome...the finishes are the jam.
Almost as much as I love their creations, I love
the Alpha Workshops ethos and how the org brings education, art, and business together. I haven't purchased anything from them yet, but I definitely plan to!