Venues on Manhattan

758 Enright Rd, Governors Island, New York, NY 10004

A compost farm on Governors Island — chickens, windrows and several tons of the city's food scraps — where volunteers sort organics twice a week and leave with a bag of finished compost if they want one.

Governors Island, New York, NY 10004

The 172-acre island off the tip of Manhattan, reached by ferry, where Billion Oyster Project keeps its shell piles and reef nurseries alongside public art and gardens.

16 Jones St, New York, NY 10014

A community pottery school running since 1909 in a West Village townhouse, with a gallery, a lecture series and some of the longest-established ceramics teaching in the city. Term courses fill fast; the one-day workshops are the way in.

353 West St, New York, NY 10014

Four miles of piers and planting along the west side of Manhattan, with a research wetlab at Pier 40 and free catch-and-release fishing off Pier 51 every Saturday. The estuary it sits in is a protected sanctuary with more than two hundred fish species.

93 Pearl St, 4th Floor, New York, NY 10004

The Financial District room of the studio this site's editor owns, on the fourth floor at 93 Pearl St. Air-dry clay, woodburning, perfume blending, mosaic lamps and tufting, booked for any day rather than run on a timetable.

237 W 18th St, New York, NY 10011

A Chelsea studio running eight-week wheel and handbuilding courses plus weekend workshops, in a basement space that has been there since the 1990s.

Seward Park, Essex St & Canal St, New York, NY 10002

The organisation that has run community composting and street-tree care on the Lower East Side since 1987. Saturday stewardship mornings rotate between Tompkins Square Park and the East River waterfront at Pier 42; all tools and guidance are provided.

119 W 23rd St, New York, NY 10011

The only museum in the United States devoted entirely to posters — graphic design treated as public art. Free all day every Friday and on the third Sunday of each month.

Washington Square, New York, NY 10012

The Village's front garden, and the home of Park Open Studio — a free drop-in artmaking session run by the Washington Square Park Conservancy under the trees at the northwest corner, Thursday to Saturday through the season.

New York, NY 10018

The lawn behind the main library, which runs one of the densest free programmes in the city — from lunchtime classes and games to films and the winter market.

28 W 27th St, 3rd Fl, New York, NY 10001

A third-floor letterpress and bookbinding centre off Broadway, with working presses, exhibitions and classes from one-day binding to full typesetting courses.

253 W 28th St, 7th Floor, New York, NY 10001

A Chelsea floral school with a rooftop garden, running introduction days, multi-day series and the professional freelance track that supplies a good share of the city's event florists.

325 W 38th St #706, New York, NY 10018

The Midtown room of the studio this site's editor owns, a block from the Port Authority side of the Garment District. Mosaic lamps, tufting, terrariums and candle pouring, booked for any day rather than run on a timetable.

306 W 37th St, 6th Fl, New York, NY 10018

A non-profit printmaking studio — screenprint, etching, lithography — with keyholder access for artists and short public classes that need no prior experience.

11 W 53rd St, New York, NY 10019

The Museum of Modern Art, whose UNIQLO Friday Nights make the whole building free to New York State residents from 5:30 to 8:30 every Friday — with drop-in drawing, talks and films inside that window.

336 W 37th St, Suite 220, New York, NY 10018

A Garment District workshop room doing Turkish mosaic lamps and candle holders, wheelchair accessible, minimum age eight. Booking only — they do not take walk-ins.

10th Ave at W 46th St, New York, NY

The Hell's Kitchen half of a two-studio pottery school — La Mano in Chelsea is the other — running four-to-six-week wheel and handbuilding courses with three-hour sessions and open practice hours most days.

2 Columbus Cir, New York, NY 10019

The craft-and-design museum on Columbus Circle, with artist studios on the sixth floor where you can watch makers work, plus public workshops and pay-what-you-wish evenings.

New York, NY

A metalsmithing bench teaching lost-wax carving, hoop and cuff making and stone setting, mostly in two-day intensives and private sessions rather than on a term calendar.

323 W 39th St, New York, NY 10018

The print shop Robert Blackburn founded in 1948 as a place where any artist could print regardless of who they were, now run by the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts. Lithography stones, etching presses, screenprint beds and a Risograph, taught in short courses at member and non-member rates.

28 W 36th St, 8th Floor, New York, NY 10018

A Midtown handcraft studio running tufting, candle pouring, resin and bead sessions by the hour, booked rather than timetabled.

1395 Lexington Ave, New York, NY 10128

A cultural centre on Lexington with a full art school — ceramics, jewellery, printmaking, drawing — alongside the talks and concerts it is better known for.

Central Park, New York, NY 10024

The park every migrating bird in the Atlantic flyway seems to know about, which is why NYC Bird Alliance runs free walks here through the autumn.

2 E 91st St, New York, NY 10128

The Smithsonian's design museum, in Andrew Carnegie's old mansion on Fifth Avenue. Beyond the galleries it runs curator tours, drop-in sketching and hands-on HOW WE MAKE workshops — several of them free with admission, and admission itself is pay-what-you-wish for an hour every day.

176 E 94th St, New York, NY 10128

A SAORI weaving studio where sessions are drop-in and improvisational rather than pattern-led — you sit at a floor loom and make something in two hours.

1220 Fifth Ave, New York, NY 10029

The city's own museum, at the top of Museum Mile opposite Central Park. Admission is pay-what-you-can at the counter, free on summer Wednesday evenings, and always free for children and for residents of the surrounding zip codes.

20 Randall's Island Park, New York, NY 10035

Four hundred acres of fields, salt marsh and an urban farm in the East River, reached on foot over the 103rd Street bridge. Volunteer sessions run twice a week from March to December and the public programming is almost entirely free.

1000 Fifth Ave, New York, NY 10028

Admission is pay-what-you-wish for New York State residents, which makes the weekend drop-in art-making here among the cheapest tutored making in the city.