Artisans Asylum

Artisans Asylum is a non-profit community workshop in Allston, Massachusetts. Artisans Asylum was founded in 2010 by an engineer, an artist, and friends. Artisans was the first makerspace to incorporate in the U.S. in 2012. Today, it holds 52,000 square feet of fabrication space between two buildings.

Artisans Asylum hosts approximately 600 monthly active members, 160 studios, and 15 workshops. Shops include woodworking, welding, bicycle maintenance and repair, machining, electronics and robotics, jewelry, digital fabrication, a digital photo studio, fiber arts, casting, laser cutting, CNC machines, prop shop, and design lab. The Asylum hosts 30-40 public classes each month, providing hands-on tool training and skill-building courses. As of 2013, the Asylum housed 40 or 50 small manufacturing companies, and raised the number of manufacturing firms in nearby Somerville by 50%. The Asylum is credited with attracting the incubator Greentown Labs to Somerville and contributing to the city's creative economy.

In 2023, it generated $1.4 million dollars in revenue and $2.25 million in expenses.