Astoria Woodworking Group Wants To Nail Down Its Own Home

ASTORIA, QUEENS — A roving carpentry group that has led classes and built furnishings around Astoria wants to start hammering out its own neighborhood woodshop.

The Astoria Woodworkers Collective was formed during the summer of 2020 by a group of neighborhood residents concerned by a lack of woodworking space in Western Queens.

Now a registered nonprofit, the collective has held classes and built everything from retail shelving to Little Free Libraries to a beehive enclosure, partnering with neighborhood organizations like Earth & Me, the Astoria Park Alliance, The Rolling Library and Tikkun BBQ.

But that nomadic existence has been limiting, forcing the collective to hold classes virtually and build projects on location.

So organizers have their sights set on a brick-and-mortar location for their boards and nails: the collective has signed a deposit for a storefront shop at 12-10 Astoria Blvd., near 12th Street and steps from the Queens Public Library's Astoria branch.

As they look to renovate the space for use as a community woodshop, the collective launched a fundraiser on Kickstarter seeking $36,000 in donations.

"There are few opportunities for people in the neighborhood to work with their hands and make physical things. We have a few wonderful arts spaces but nothing tailored to working with wood," said John Bohlmeyer, the collective's board president, in a news release.

"With AWC, we’re building a shared shop dedicated to woodworking. We’re making our membership as accessible as we can. We welcome folks with woodworking experience and beginners who simply want to explore the craft."

The storefront space would allow the collective to bring on more members, train them in woodworking and safety skills, and help them get started on their own projects.

"The space will also help us continue to support the community with similar projects to the ones we’ve completed over the last few years by giving us a home base to operate," Bohlmeyer said.

The Kickstarter ends on Jan. 8, and offers donation rewards including a tool library membership, class passes, and early access to the woodshop starting in March.

Among the collective's supporters is Elizabeth O'Connor, director of the Moore Jackson Cemetery and Community Garden in Woodside, with whom the collective has worked to build a sandbox, beehive enclosures, a solar power station and a puppet theater.

"AWC Woodshop needs to happen," O'Connor said in a statement.

" Not only are they an amazing group of people who give to their community any chance they have, but their mission is so important: to make woodworking more accessible in our own backyard."

Learn more about the campaign on its Kickstarter page, or about the Astoria Woodworkers Collective on its website.