Capitol Hill Arts Workshop

The mission of the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop is to promote the creativity that exists within each of us... to nurture an understanding and acceptance of one another through the arts, and to be an incubator for the creation of art in the local community. This vision is accomplished through affordable, multidisciplinary instruction to adults and children by professional artists, and by creating performance and exhibition opportunities in music, drama, movement and dance, literary and visual arts.

History & Programming:
The Capitol Hill Arts Workshop is a community-based not-for-profit organization founded in 1972 by Sally Crowell and other community members who were interested in sharing their artistic expertise with children and adults. Arts instruction classes were held in several Capitol Hill churches until, in the late 1970's, the organization obtained the use of the old B.B. French School (545 Seventh St, SE) from the District of Columbia government. The Workshop undertook extensive renovation of the facility (which had been closed for many years) through a partnership with Marines of the 8th & I Street Barracks, neighborhood business and residents, and federal financial support from the U.S. Department of the Interior. The Capitol Hill Arts Workshop moved into the fully renovated building in 1980.

The Workshop facility provides a dance studio (which doubles as a recital hall), paint studio, black box theater, art gallery, complete ceramics/pottery studio, a photography darkroom (the only open darkroom in D.C.), private music instruction studios and business offices.

The Capitol Hill Arts Workshop is located in a racially and economically diverse neighborhood. Participants - students, artists, faculty, audiences and staff - come from diverse communities throughout the Capital Region, especially from Capitol Hill. The Capitol Hill Arts Workshop is continually evolving to meet the needs of the community.