The Sociable Workshop
In 1973 the Store began a project called the “Sociable Workshop,” which paid disadvantaged community members to take craft making classes “where professional artists and designers work with students, hobbyists, retirees and handicapped people in a non-profit program for the hand arts." The objects produced in the Sociable Workshop were then sold in the Store, the makers of these objects would receive 2/3 of the profits, and the last 1/3 was used to fund other Community Action projects.
It became evident that the products being made were not profitable to sell in the Store, so they began displaying the work of nationally known craftspeople in the Store. Gimbels department stores purchase and sell crafts from the Sociable Workshop in September 1975. In April 1976, inspired by the display at Gimbels, Park B. Smith signs a contract for the Sociable Workshop to produce 800 pillows/month designed by Marilyn Meltzer for his stores. By 1978 these crafts were sold at retailers such as Sak's Fifth Avenue, Bloomingdale's, and Macy's, and were on the shelves of 77 department stores across 22 states.
Despite Betty Raphael's efforts, the Sociable Workshop and the Store proved not to be profitable enough to survive- they were in constant debt. The Sociable Workshop closed in 1979, and the Store re-located to the Strip district, where it still exists (though quite differently than before) as Contemporary Craft.
