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| Alpha Workshops |
| | Alpha Workshops brings two very disparate worlds - supportive employment and high-end interior design - together under one roof. Conceived by Ken Wampler in 1995 to improve the quality of life for people living longer, and healthier, with HIV/AIDS, Alpha Workshops trains people with HIV/AIDS in a range of decorative arts. Students in each 10-week Basic Training session learn gilding, decorative paint finishes and faux finishes, color theory, and wallpaper design and production.
Alpha Workshops is also a wonderful resource for interior designers who need custom painting, gilding, and finishing for a one of a kind project. This craftsmanship can be seen throughout the newly renovated Gracie Mansion as well as other prominent homes and businesses throughout the New York metropolitan area. Wallpapers and lamps created by Alpha Workshops are in homes and businesses throughout the country.
Wampler, whose background is in theater and design, spent the late 1980s and early 1990s at the AIDS Resource Center developing supportive housing for homeless people living with HIV. Wanting to integrate his early career with his present one, he began searching for a way to combine his creative skills in decorative painting with his knowledge of social work and the supportive housing field. "I knew there were lots of talented people living in supportive housing, many of whom were looking for the chance to focus their talents," he says. "The Alpha Workshops represents an opportunity to build their identities around their work rather than around their illness."
Since its inception 11 years ago, Alpha has gone from two employees and earned income of $7,000 to a current staff of 30 and earned income in 2005 of over $600,000. The Alpha Workshops has done work for corporations such as Benjamin Moore, eBay, Jones Apparel Group and Origins cosmetics. In 2002, Alpha was the recipient of the Elle Deco International Design Award, has been featured in magazines such as Metropolitan Home, House & Garden, Interior Design and O at Home and several of their designs are in the permanent collection of the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution.
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