This spring PIE held a short fellowship program for art curious youth to collaboratively design a Maker Space in the LOVE Building. Our cohort of youth were asked to support the visioning and creation of the Maker Space, providing guiding insights and informing PIE about what youth want in their studio. During our time together we explored other maker spaces and art studios in Detroit. By doing this, we aimed to get a sense of what is going on in these different spaces and how we could best collaborate with them. Youth Participants were introduced to digital fabrication, software design, woodworking, interior design, printmaking, videography & all kinds of other collaborative, creative work.
As we explored the creative spaces in the city, we discussed the need for a Maker Space of our own. Youth in our cohort expressed experiencing an increasingly privatized world. A world that has divested from communal spaces that facilitate or foster connection. They described having to regularly navigate pay walls of membership, tuition, enrollment, cover charges, or the expectation of purchasing something when outside of our homes. Youth, especially in their teenage years, are intentionally discouraged from having access to public and private spaces and their basic human needs for joy, play, connection and community are not being tended to. This has resulted in their over reliance on technology and social media as a space of refuge for young people and a “safer” solution for their families to make. However, this form of relationship building online, and unsupervised internet access has dire consequences at worst and at best, a poor substitute for the in-person interactions that help shape a growing mind and body. These issues are as relevant to adults as they are to young people, with record levels of people experiencing loss of connectivity and deep loneliness in the US.
As we develop the Maker Space, we are considering these basic needs for safe, free and accessible 3rd spaces in our community where intergenerational and interdisciplinary relationships can be fostered and grow. We set intentions for our own Maker Space to cater to the needs and dreams of the young people in our Core City community, equipping them with the tools and resources they need to expand their art practices and imaginations. The Maker Space is intended to provide people with peer to peer mentorship as well as access to local artists and makers whose job it is to inspire people through their craft and support them through instructional workshops and 1:1 time together. With these relationships and resources, we hope to incite the capacity for radical imagination in our community. We wrapped up our fellowship program over Supino's pizza and cannolis at the end of the school year with the goal of integrating these insights and goals into a plan to begin construction for the Maker Space beginning in the fall of 2024.
At PIE, we recognize the impact of self advocacy and empowerment in young people & how by inviting and centering their ideas, they will be more directly invested and impacted in the future of what this space becomes. Our programs are structured to collect information about the experiences of our community from them directly; To listen to the experiences and solutions of Detroit learners and find creative ways to present those findings to the community through programs, resources, sharable art and media. We believe this maker space will act as a playground for creative problem solving and this kind of art and media generation; accessible to youth, organizers and community members in the core city neighborhood. We will offer programming that champions exploratory learning, created and designed by and for youth. In collaboration with the LOVE Building, PIE will also offer “Open Studio Sessions” to introduce LOVE building tenants & Core City community members to the Maker Space and its offerings. We aim to provide access for people, media makers & artists specifically within the core city neighborhood that wish to have access to tools, resources and want to connect with others.
Thank you to each of the Maker’s Spaces we visited! Bulk Space, the Brightmore Community Maker Space, and Ben Wolf.