YOGAMOTIF

An art and social practice studio integrating yoga, meditation, and creative practice.

Founded in Pittsburgh’s East Liberty neighborhood by artist, researcher, and yoga guide Alecia Dawn Young, YOGAMOTIF was built on the belief that art making is a healing practice. In 2018, the studio opened its doors with its flagship Yoga Paint Party workshop, inviting guests to paint, move, and make during a full-bodied meditative practice.

As the teaching community grew, so did the studio’s offerings. YOGAMOTIF expanded to include weekly yoga classes, pop-up workshops, and community-centered experiences that supported Black communities of care, prenatal and postpartum bodies, meditation, and joy-based spaces. The work extended across the Greater Pittsburgh region through partnerships with community organizations and corporations, led by a collective of trauma-sensitive yoga guides.

Like many studios in the pandemic, in 2020, YOGAMOTIF transitioned from a physical location to a virtual studio. Throughout this evolution, the studio built a digital library of yoga and meditation practices with a strong emphasis on prenatal and postpartum care.

Yoga Paint Party

Produced the process-art workshops, Yoga Paint Party™, an all-levels yoga class that creates art through movement. This was complimented by the patent pending yoga-painting mat, YOGAMOTIFmat, designed to facilitate a collaborative painting experience between art and yoga.
Take Up Space Festival

A virtual festival for mothers, people who birth, and the community that supports them. This fundraising event for The PostpARTum Project was made possible in part by the Advancing Black Arts in Pittsburgh grant from The Pittsburgh Foundation and The Heinz Endowments and our generous sponsors.
YOGAMOTIF

A creative wellness studio that offers art and yoga classes to youth, pregnant people, and the community at large. Whether working with youth in out-of-school time workshops, pregnant bodies in prenatal yoga, or creative communities in Yoga Paint Party workshops - YOGAMOTIF joyfully prepares each student for life’s labor and the art, inspiration, and babies they might birth.