WARE — During July and August 2025, nonprofit Workshop13 Cultural Arts and Learning Center will install a vertical platform lift in its main location at 13 Church St. to increase its accessibility to Ware community members.
The lift will be positioned inside between the first and second floor of the main 13 Church St. building, allowing greater access to the nonprofit’s Grand Hall Gallery cathedral space upstairs, Workshop13 Executive Director Marie Lauderdale told Reminder Publishing.
Currently, the space contains a chair lift to assist with visitors who struggle with stairs. However, the chair lift requires visitors with wheelchairs to transport the wheelchair to the top of the stairs, reducing their independence, Lauderdale stated. With the vertical platform lift, visitors with wheelchairs can roll onto the platform and move upward without having to leave their chair or transport the chair separately.
The vertical platform lift and its installation will be funded through a $100,000 grant awarded to Workshop13 by the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission’s Pioneer Valley Regional Ventures Center. These funds were part of $650,000 that the Center was allotted from the National Park Service’s Paul Bruhn Historic Revitalization Program to distribute to local communities, the PVPC stated.
Receiving the grant is “a dream come true” for Workshop13, Lauderdale said. She stated that the organization has been wanting to create greater access to its building for multiple years, but that the work was “very expensive” for the nonprofit to fundraise.
Likewise, the need for an improvement from the chair lift had been brought forward by retired attendees who attend Workshop13’s events, Lauderdale noted. Following the completion of the vertical platform lift’s installation, the area will be compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
“When we learned about this grant, we were really excited because it does not require a match,” Lauderdale explained. This means that the nonprofit will not have to pay a portion of the grant’s total in order to receive its funds.
The $100,000 is expected to mostly cover the costs of the vertical platform lift, Lauderdale stated. As the organization has not selected a company to complete the installation, the final cost of the project is not yet known.
Celebrating its 10-year anniversary, Workshop13 first opened at its 13 Church St. location in 2014 after the former Methodist Episcopal Church was purchased from the town of Ware by Chris and Lisa Dimarzio and Roc and Pat Goudreau in 2012. At the time, the congregation was no longer utilizing the building and it was vacant, Lauderdale explained.
“There are really no other cultural resources like ours in the Quaboag region,” she said. The nonprofit is mainly run with support of local volunteers.
Operating across three locations, the nonprofit offers concerts, classes, open mic events, performances and exhibitions for the local community. Classes include oil painting, writing, drawing, pottery, music, pastel, acrylic painting, watercolor painting, fiber arts and culinary arts as well as various youth programs, Workshop13 stated. The three locations are the ArtWorks Gallery at 69 Main St., the ClayWorks Pottery studio at 71 Main St. and the main location at 13 Church St., which includes the Grand Hall Gallery.
In addition to its offering of artistic programs, the organization also supports the Ware community by working to “revitalize” the area through artwork and work with other organizations, Lauderdale stated.
For more information about Workshop13 or to sign up for one of its programs, visit its website at workshop13.org. Residents can also donate supplies or funds as well as apply to volunteer at workshop13.org/support-us-2.
