Buffalo, NY – On Wednesday, January 10, at 6 pm, SACRA, the Society for the Advancement of Construction-Related Arts, will host a graduation ceremony for its inaugural class of trainees at Assembly House 150. Dr. Robert Shibley, Dean of the University at Buffalo’s School of Architecture and Planning and Senior Fellow at the Regional Institute, will serve as the keynote speaker. SACRA is a collaboration led by Assembly House 150, an organization founded by artist and University at Buffalo professor of architecture Dennis Maher, in partnership with the Albright-Knox Art Gallery’s Innovation Lab.

SACRA combines artistic practices with vocational training, bringing together local tradespeople, developers, craftspeople, artists, and artisans to teach trainees, recruited by the Erie County Department of Social Services, key skills in high demand in the construction market today. Classes run daily at Assembly House, the former Immaculate Conception Church on Edward Street.

Building on the legacy of artistic and design excellence demonstrated by Buffalo’s architectural heritage, SACRA creates teaching and learning opportunities where exceptional quality, historical understanding, and richness of imagination in design and construction are encouraged. It also teaches the necessary skills for employment in the fields of carpentry and woodworking. “We’re aiming to blend aspects of vocational training with those of a more creative art enterprise,” Maher said. “We try to give students the freedom to do design projects along the way and expose them to different creative strains that hopefully feed into their interests and get them excited.”

Over the course of the fifteen-week program, twelve students have worked on a variety of projects, ranging from building their own toolboxes to the creation of a Building Arts Library within the SACRA exhibition space at Assembly House. In addition to the construction-skills training, students have also received training in life-enhancement and job skills to best assist them with their transition to the workforce.

The trainees have met with industry leaders and worked with guest instructors and speakers including Domenic Cortese, President and CEO of Cortese Brothers Construction and host of the WBEN radio show “Hammertime”; Nick Sinatra, President of Sinatra & Company Real Estate; Jomo Akono of the Northeast Regional Carpenters Union Local 276; Richard Lipsitz, President of the WNY Area Labor Federation; and Jim Cordes, Woodworker in Residence at the Roycroft Campus. The students have toured significant assets of Buffalo’s architectural heritage, including the Martin House, lead by Steve Oubre, the Lead Cabinetmaker on the restoration project. They also visited work sites such as Hadley Exhibits and J. A. Gullick Window and Door Co.

The program has a project-based curriculum, focusing on the design and construction of creative placemaking environments that have the potential for high impact and visibility within the community. Every participant has an opportunity to use new tools and learn new skills while working toward a common goal. The trainees have worked with students in Erie Community College’s Architecture Technology program to enhance their design skills. By bringing together trainees from diverse backgrounds and with varying degrees of experience, SACRA is helping to bridge the social and economic gaps that exist in our community.

SACRA is working to establish a direct pipeline for program graduates to secure long-term employment. To this end, the training is designed to respond to the needs identified by potential employers. Members of the first class have interviewed with Hadley Exhibits, J. A. Gullick, Sinatra Development, Tundo Construction, and Cortese Brothers Construction. The first two students to be hired recently began working with Cortese Brothers Construction and Koehler-Gibson Marking and Graphics, Inc.

In June of 2017, the Innovation Lab and its partners were recommended by the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA) Our Town program for an award of $100,000 to support SACRA. The Our Town grant program of the NEA supports creative placemaking projects that help to transform communities into lively, beautiful, and resilient places with the arts at their core. The NEA awarded eighty-nine Our Town grants from more than 350 applications in 2017.

The AK Innovation Lab was founded with leadership support from The John R. Oishei Foundation, The Seymour H. Knox Foundation, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional support for this program has been generously provided by The Vogt Family Foundation; Tim and Alexandra Johnston; Ciminelli Real Estate Corporation/LP Ciminelli, Inc.; Annette M. Cravens; Gilbane Building Company; John Somers, Harmac Medical Products; John K. Bace and Melissa T. Balbach; Mariana Botero-Chason and Mark Chason; The D-B Trust; The Fatta Foundation; and Baillie Lumber.

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