Wish You Were Here – Educational Alliance Art School 2025 Apprenticeship Exhibition 

On view now

Wish You Were Here is the capstone exhibition of the Educational Alliance Art School’s 2025 Ceramics Apprenticeship Program. Inspired by childhood experiences, indigenous agricultural traditions, and iconic symbols and myths, the pieces connect threads from past to present, reflecting a fascination with memory, narrative, and cultural artifacts. As you look into the forms, shapes, and colors, you’re invited to remember those who came before, to reflect on things past and the promise of the future.

Gallery coming soon!

The Language of Color

On view until September 2025

During the 2024-2025 school year, children from infancy to age five explored the concept of color. In each classroom, color emerged as a shared language, fostering both a sense of belonging and a space for individuality.

Color is an invitation to delight in sensory experiences and make discoveries; to observe shifting seasons, build with repurposed materials, and celebrate the beauty of everyday moments. With each painting, drawing, collage, and sculpture, color serves as an instrument that gives children a voice to tell stories, share emotions, and deepen their connection with the world around them. Exploring color is a journey that spans a lifetime. With The Language of Color, we are honored to witness its beginning. 

CelebratEArts 2025

May 1st – 31st, 2025

Educational Alliance invites you to experience the vibrant creativity and cultural contributions of older New Yorkers during the fourth annual CelebratEArts Festival. CelebratEArts, a month-long arts festival held in May, is part of our broader celebration of Older Americans Month, an initiative dedicated to combating ageism and honoring contributions across generations. Our 2025 theme, Flip the Script, aligns with the national theme set by the Administration for Community Living and challenges artists and audiences to break boundaries, redefine narratives, and transform society’s perception of aging. CelebratEArts provides a dynamic platform for older adults to share their art, express themselves, and connect with the community.

The annual festival is hosted across five Educational Alliance sites, including the Weinberg Center for Balanced Living, 14th Street Y, Co-op Village NORC, Project ORE, and Sirovich Center for Balanced Living.

Roots and Visions: A Collective Journey

February 21st – April 18th, 2025

“Roots and Visions: A Collective Journey” highlights the artistic paths and personal stories of students and faculty from the Educational Alliance Art School. This exhibition brings together a wide range of perspectives, histories, and new ideas developed throughout 2024. From abstracts to landscapes and ceramics to portraits, this collection invites viewers to experience the creativity and talent of our community.

Peter Blume: Thirteen Drawings from the Collection of the Educational Alliance

November 11th, 2024  – January 3rd, 2025

Peter Blume, a prominent American painter known for his meticulous style and fusion of Surrealism and Precisionism, had significant ties to the Educational Alliance Art School.

Born in Russia and raised in New York, Blume trained at the Art School during the early stages of his career, where he developed foundational skills and explored artistic techniques that later defined his work. The school fostered his creativity and provided a supportive environment for young artists in the Lower East Side, where Blume honed his unique vision.

His later works, celebrated for their symbolic complexity and narrative depth, reflect the formative influence of his early years at the Educational Alliance Art School, which continues to honor his legacy as part of its rich artistic history.

Have You Seen a Lost Idea?

September 27th, 2024 – January 10th, 2025

“Have you seen a lost idea?” is a collection of Luke Dohner’s works created on the Lower East Side from 1995-2024. “Lost ideas” has a deep resonance because this past spring, we lost Luke to cancer. Many will remember Luke as the lanky guy with unmissable white curls and a cheerful personality who was a fixture of the Educational Alliance community since 2016.

This exhibition celebrates all aspects of his life as an artist. His body of work mirrors his personality – humorous, subversive, compassionate, and always curious. Luke was a conceptual artist (B.F.A., School of the Art Institute of Chicago) whose work goes far beyond the ceramics he created in the Educational Alliance studio.

This exhibition invites you to find the wonder hidden below the surface of the everyday through works crafted in ceramic, glass, paper, plastic, and pixels. Often juxtaposing functional and cast-off objects with materials you could get at a dollar store, he wrote about his art, “I want to give the viewers and myself a feeling of ‘soothing agitation. To push and form my ideas and materials into a state of ‘normal wonderment’.”

Holding Shape

July 11th – August 30th, 2024

“Holding Shape” is the capstone project of a year-long ceramics apprenticeship at the historic Educational Alliance Art School. This exhibition is a celebration of beauty, humor, and joy shared through hand-built ceramic forms. With playful wit and meticulous craft, each artist weaves a narrative reflecting their unique perspectives and identities. Whether functional or figurative, their distinct practices converge through a sculptural approach to handbuilding.

Throughout their apprenticeship, these artists have hand-crafted their own clay, developed vibrant glazes, and given shape to new bodies of work. They invite viewers into their reality: coiled, pinched, and carved out for themselves, and the vessels they’ve crafted with earth, heat, and time.

CelebratEArts 2024

May 1st – 31st, 2024

Educational Alliance invites you to experience the vibrant creativity and rich cultural contributions of older New Yorkers during the third annual CelebratEArts Festival. This month-long event, held throughout May, celebrates the unique talents and artistic skills fostered by older adults in our City. 

In alignment with the theme of Older Americans Month 2024, “Powered by Connection,” this year’s festival emphasizes the importance of social connections and meaningful relationships in promoting health, well-being, and independence among older adults. 

The annual festival is hosted across five Educational Alliance sites, including the Weinberg Center for Balanced Living, Sirovich Center for Balanced Living, Co-Op Village NORC, Project ORE, and the 14th Street Y.