July 23, 2014
Today I toured some interesting facilities in Raleigh and Durham. Liberty Arts, The Scrap Exchange, SplatSpace, SuperGraphic, and Raleigh Makerspace. All of these places subscribe to the mantra that together we can accomplish more. These places all utilize the leverage of shared resources to empower people to follow their heart and create things. Liberty Arts is chock full of beautiful metal sculptures and extremely talented people creating them. Next-door The Scrap Exchange is providing a channel for unused materials to be inventoried so that they can be used rather than fill up our landfills, as well as providing educational and outreach opportunities to their community. SplatSpace, SuperGraphic, and Raleigh Makerspace provide high-tech and specialized equipment that would be out of reach for the average person to empower them to exercise their talent for creating.
The one thing that I felt at all of these places is the importance of community building. In questioning the people that manage these places I found consistently that they have found that building strong relationships is the key to their success. All of these operations have their challenges, but it seems that teamwork can overcome many obstacles.
This sense of community building is what I am counting on as the driving force behind MIXXER. If you are new here, MIXXER is a makerspace project that will be opening in Winston-Salem in the future. Currently MIXXER is a large number of people having conversations and making plans to open a space where people can share resources to build the things that are important to them. This Sunday – July 27, 2014 these people of Winston-Salem will come together to let their voices be heard to direct us to the type of facilities that the community will support.
There will be entrepreneurs that build electric cars and their components, talented architectural lighting designers, artists and craftsmen, and many other talented people that believe in the power of sharing resources and relying on community to help them use their talents to build a better more fulfilled life for themselves. If any of this sounds interesting to you – contact me: alan@wsmixxer.org or come to our party at The Olio 918 Bridge St. Winston-Salem, NC on July 27, 2014 from 4 to 7pm. I hope to hear from you soon.
Alan Shelton Design 