Adult classes in NYC: Not-for-profit art and science hubs

Founded in 1977, this cutting-edge video and audio studio helps visual artists and musicians incorporate new and evolving technologies into their work—to get the idea, check out the Harvestworks projects “Internet Psychic Phone Repair,” “Cloud.Data 2010” and “The Augmented Reality War 1812” on Governors Island through September 2. Intensive, hands-on certificate programs tailored to the individual are offered in digital audio ($3,000) and digital video ($1,800), but you may want to get your feet wet with such workshops as “Location Sounds for TV and Film” (see website for date; $150), or the online “Making Max Make Music with Markov Chains” (see website for date; $100), hands-on instruction on how to use the software program Max as a tool for algorithmic music composition.

Housed in the 24,000-square-foot Civil War–era Pioneer Iron Works building, this creative hub was launched last year by artist Dustin Yellin. In addition to hosting exhibitions, Pioneer Works runs residencies for architects, musicians, writers, visual artists and scientists. Residents—who currently include a nanoscience expert, an artist working with found and natural objects, and a geneticist—lead lectures and workshops that explore technologies and mediums that straddle fine arts and scientific methods. Fall offerings include “Electronic Voices” (Sept 17 7–9pm; $40), which re-creates some of the experiments carried out by early sound pioneers and covers the history of sound manipulation through to the present day; “From Tesla to the Transistor” (Sept 19, 26 7–9pm; $95 plus $30 materials fee), an experiment-based class that enables students to detect, quantify and manipulate the normally invisible phenomenon of electricity; and the hands-on “Tintypes Revisited: Wet Plate Photography Circa 1859” (Dec 7, 8 10am–4:30pm; $195 plus $50 materials fee).