Department of Making and Doing’s First Community Meeting

Meeting attendees get to know each other in DM+D’s workspace before learning about its community engagement initiatives.

Whether you’re interested in making art, circuit boards or simple machines, there is almost always community of like-minded peers. Sometimes, though, it’s hard to know where to find them.

West Philadelphia-based Department of Making + Doing (DM + D) is trying to help fellow makers find one another through a series of engagement initiatives.

The organization discussed its community engagement strategy at an open meeting on June 5 at its headquarters at 37th and Market streets. The meeting focused on how DM +D can better reach people who are interested in getting involved with the maker community but don’t know how to get started.

DM+D is a year-old collective made up of four other organizations:

• NextFab, a high-tech design studio and workshop formerly run out of the DM+D space
• STEAM Initiatives, a University City Science Center program that incorporates art into STEM lessons
• The Hacktory, which encourages art through technology
• Public Workshop, which involves youth in creative technological problem-solving and design projects.

The collective operates out of a work-space that serves as a hub for inventors, tinkerers, and engineers of all skill levels. Classes and trainings are run on a weekly basis and tools are available for use on drop-in days, including a full wood-shop, laser printer, and vinyl cutter. The group was established with the help of a Knight Foundation grant in 2013.

DM+D program manager Mike Darfler describes the mechanics of the woodshop to meeting attendees during a tour of the space.

About a dozen members of the DM+D community as well as curious private individuals attended the meeting, each receiving a name-tag with a fill-the-blank component: “I love to make____.”

DM+D program manager Mike Darfler (whose nametag read, “I love to make communities”) led the discussion by detailing the ways DM+D tries to include all manners of creators. For instance, upcoming classes at the space range from “Sew a Felt Monster” to “Building Geodesic Domes” to “Programming for Artists + Musicians.”

“We try to be very open about ways to be a maker,” Darfler said.

Georgia Guthrie, director of the Hacktory, described her own experience being in the maker community, and the struggle she sometimes sees others experiencing in trying to join it.

“I think that [the urge to make] is something that is innately human, and in many people you just need to turn it on,” she said. “I don’t know what the switch is for a lot of people, but in our culture too, there’s lot of forces that kind of push women and other people away from that, or just let them know that maybe it’s not for them.”

Those who feel disassociated from other makers could take introductory Hacktory classes as an “on-ramp” to the scene, she suggested.

Representatives of each of DM+D’s partners outlined their forthcoming initiatives to further community engagement.

• STEAM Initiatives will host a “Made at DM+D” exhibit at the Esther M. Klein Art Gallery this summer to showcase projects that have been completed at the space.
• NextFab is aiming to lower the barrier of entry for individuals by offering free classes, and classes to non-members. (Use of NextFab equipment is currently membership-based.)
• The Hacktory will offer “Unknown Territory” residencies and fellowships to local artists who want to incorporate technology into their work.
• Public Workshop will continue its youth programming this summer in Camden, North Philadelphia, and West Philadelphia.
• A general call for teachers was put out to expand DM+D’s reach beyond the immediate partners.

Going forward, Darfler said DM+D would like to hold more panels like this one to continue to assess the state of maker culture.