About
Lower Astronomy Studios is a space for curiosity, wonder, hard work and sawdust.
We love the mind-bending properties of geometry, the physical relationship of shapes in space. We appreciate algebra (the reunion of missing parts) for its acknowledgement that there are many parts that make a whole and that there is always a remainder.
We hope to inspire curious people, especially queer, femme, BIPOC, LGBTQIA+ to build and explore the material world. It is essential learning and looking, training hands and eyes, building manual dexterity and confidence.
OUR STUDIO
Lower Astronomy Studios, or “LAS” is a queer owned + operated independent woodworking and sculpture studio. We are also a hands-on educational laboratory. We have fun and we work hard, while also building an inclusive + safe atmosphere. LAS strives to pay a living wage and hire queer, femme, trans, + BIPOC studio assistants and outside studio labor. Looking at who has been historically excluded from woodworking spaces, we understand that building an intersectional and protected workshop is the key to healthy learning, rich conversation, and trust, leading to a safer overall woodworking ecosystem.
We put energy and weight into supporting local and national communities, non-profits, and conversations, part of the pivot into the new worlds that will become, decolonizing craft + building dynamic + inclusive structures of support + resilience. We critically consider what skills and histories we want to bring into the future.
EDUCATION MISSION
Our educational mission is empowerment + resilience through making, that hand work is heart work, and teaching essential skills. We hope to inspire curious people, especially queer, femme, BIPOC, LGBTQIA+ to build and explore the material world. It is essential learning and looking, training hands and eyes, building manual dexterity, confidence, and an understanding of structure of the built world.
Sylvie Rosenthal
FOUNDER + ARTIST
Sylvie Rosenthal started building at age six at an experimental design museum where she made circuses, catapults, rockets, and robots. She received her BFA from The Rochester Institute of Technology, Woodworking and Furniture Design Program in the School for American Crafts, built two houses from the ground up with her mentor Doug Sigler, and received her MFA in sculpture from the University of Wisconsin- Madison.
Sylvie has been routinely invited as a visiting artist, teacher, and researcher to many schools including San Diego State University (CA), University of Wisconsin Whitewater and Madison (WI), Penland School of Crafts (NC), Haystack Mountain School (ME), Anderson Ranch Arts Center (CO), Australia National University (Canberra, Australia) and Tainan National University of the Arts (Tainan, Taiwan R.O.C.). She has shown nationally at galleries and museums such as The Fuller Craft Museum (MA), The Mint Museum (NC), and the Museum of Art and Design (NYC).
Currently, Sylvie maintains a studio practice making furniture on commission, production work for sale online, and sculpture dealing with the intersecting flight patterns of the histories of trade, the intentional and unintentional transplantations that come with it, hybridity, materiality, queer theory, and the natural world. Sylvie teaches woodworking and design thinking in many settings, such as university and college programs, craftschool workshops, and to children. She recently finished her service on the board of trustees of CERF+, the Artists’ Safety Net which helps artists build strong and resilient careers.
