New North Adams Makerspace Opens on Main Street
 The new Makers' Mill opened on Main Street to provide space and equipment for print and textile artisans and workshops. |
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The newest shop on Main Street is all about making things through community and collaboration.
The North Adams Makers' Mill opened last week at 73 Main St. to provide a common space for printers and textile crafters to work, share and learn. Dozens of people attended Friday night's public opening to try some of the activities and learn about the space.
"It's a philosophical shift from being a consumer to being a producer," said Chairwoman Katie Barber of the shared-space concept that began about a decade ago. "What that shift does is create a new economy around making."
The collaborative space is the latest venture backed by Lever, a nonprofit working to develop entrepreneurship and social innovation in the city. Lever's first public initiative was Cloud85, a shared office space for small entities and individuals, that opened in January.
The makerspace, also a nonprofit incubator, is the result of meetings that began last year with artisans and craftsmen from a range of disciplines to determine what the best first step in a collaborative working space should be. It was decided to pursue printing, book making and textiles, particularly weaving at this point, as the most feasible shop.
An IndieGoGo campaign to raise $10,000 attracted 164 supporters and raised 125 percent of the mill's goal.
"It was that enthusiasm in that campaign that really spurred us to make this happen," Barber said.
The Alabama transplant has only been in the Berkshires a year but said she's warmed by the welcome the community gave her. Barber works in paper as a bookbinder, papermaker and letterpress artist.
The tools of her craft will be available to her in the makerspace, along with looms, cutting boards, work tables and other equipment for members, and some Storey Publishing books for inspiration. Most of that equipment and furniture was donated by individuals and businesses like Cricket Creek Farm of Williamstown, which presented the mill with a loom and 15 pounds of its famed cheese to feed open house guests.
Volunteers also helped to transform the former chocolate shop into a bright, open facility with definable working spaces.
"People came out and believed in this project enough to invest themselves in a physical way," said Barber, who added there was a long list of contributors.
"I think that really long list illustrates that community is central to this space coming together. We have been getting continual feedback from the community on the needs ... [without that feedback] it would not have moved at this pace."
Dan O'Connor, "Danny O," is one of those enthusiastic supporters. The artist is starting a collage club and has future visions of a photography and painting clubs, with more to come.
"It just got me fired up," he said. "I adopted this space, my imagination adopted this space."
He's also hoping to bring back the "100 Hours in the Woodshed" artmaking event that had been featured several times at Gallery 51.
"We want to bring it back, a lot of people have asked about it and a lot of people are getting on board," O'Connor said. "It was the most fun thing I've done in North Adams."
To join all those clubs and workshops, you have to join the makerspace. Prices range from $10 a month for a supporter to be invited to events and receive newsletters to $40 a month for use of the equipment, a space for projects and discounts on workshops.
Mayor Richard Alcombright, a lifelong city resident, said he was pleased to be able to walk into a place and not know two-thirds of the people.
"Kate has been using the words makers, producers ... were people in the late 1800s who were making this city saying those same kinds of words?" he asked. "Many of the locals here don't connect because they keep thinking if it's not manufacturing it's not good for us. ...
"But this is manufacturing, we're talking about printing, we're talking about weaving, we're talking about the creation and making of goods. This is like going back to our roots."
The mayor said the opening of the makerspace was a great thing for Main Street, although Barber added a cautionary note that the community needs to support it.
"Invest yourself in this space, because without people there's no community," she said. "Consider this a call to action to come and make this space yours to add to the dialogue, to become a member, to meet new people, to try on new things and to help shape what this pace can be for North Adams."
Tags: creative economy, makerspace,
