Sparked by the guiding vision of the artist, professor of architecture, and founder Dennis Maher, Assembly House 150 is an innovative catalyst for experiential learning — an art-design-construction incubator providing hands-on instruction through immersive programs that prepare participants, often under-employed or under-resourced, for careers in construction-related fields. But there’s something more.
A reimagined church in the heart of Buffalo, New York — with a residential satellite located in one of the city’s historic neighborhoods — Assembly House unfolds as an immersive experiment in art, architecture, craft, and community, mixing interactive display with workshop. Wondrous environments are collaboratively planned, designed, and constructed, inviting diverse audiences to experience the art of building. Yet, there’s more.
Magnetically attracting tradespeople, artists, designers, architects, businesspeople, preservationists, planners, artisans — the curious and aspiring — Assembly House 150 becomes a cultural destination hosting tours and events, connecting communities, and capturing the collective imagination.
Reach is expanded and self-sustainably fueled by the creative production of objects, spaces, and other commissioned projects — from interiors and furniture to three-dimensional murals and installations. And still, there’s even more.
The whole of Assembly House 150 is something besides the parts.
Creative action empowers people. Whatever the perceived limitations or conventional constraints, perspectives are shifted — a more artful, equitable, and just world emerges. Not only does Assembly House transform spaces, but the people who build and experience them, as well.
Assembly House delivers the reorienting power to transcend. [1]