Spend the Summer Making at Camps in Long Beach!

Two years ago (2013) I was pleased to participate in the very first Maker Camp. The Long Beach location was the Cultural Alliance space at 729 Pine Street, where we worked with a small group of children whose mothers were participating in my Mother’s Sewing Club that I held that summer. You can find the recap of that experience here.

Long Beach has come into its own as a Maker community in a big way, with Makersville makerspaces at the Long Beach Sea Base and at Made in Long Beach, and the Long Beach Public Library makerspace, The Studio.

“Isn’t every artist’s studio essentially a Makerspace?” you might ask. Not quite. Makerspaces work hard to be multi-disciplinary in a big way. So you might find Game Design next to 3D Printing, and sewing next to robotics and silk screening. Spinning of wool next to LEGO(r) activities. Metal bending and drilling of wood. The important thing is to have multiple things happening in the same space, hopefully at the same or at overlapping times. To the uninitiated it may seem scattered, but it permits a melting together of techniques that can lead to something big and new and wonderful.

A second significant characteristic of a Makerspace is the provision of space for storage of works in progress. It’s not an easy thing to do, and Kudos to those who try to solve that difficult problem.

There’s more... The content evolves around the skills, abilities and interests of the makers who use the space. It’s what makes each Makerspace unique. The equipment, too, evolves around the Makers. Laser printers and cutters, 3d scanners and printers, welding machines and sewing machines. A metal brake. That sort of thing.

This summer, you can find Maker and Making activities in Long Beach at the following maker spaces near you.

Makersville’s Club Ten youth program, a collaboration with the Long Beach Boy Scouts of America (BSA) reaches out to youth starting at age 7. Local creatives bring to the community activities and projects in four focus areas. Activities start next week at Made in Long Beach (236 Pine Ave) and continue there until August 18, when it returns to the Long Beach Sea Base. Click here for the Makersville summer schedule and a link to our registration form.

• Game Design and Development,
  
• Creative and Technical LEGO(r),
  
• Fabric Fiber and Mask,
  
• Youth Empowerment and Entrepreneurship.
  

But wait... There’s more!

If you haven’t visited the Long Beach Public Library’s awesome Makerspace, the Studio, you should definitely put it on your list of things to do. The LBPL is hosting several weeks of Maker activities, and is well equipped to share with other Maker Camp communities through Google+. Check out the LBPL’s Maker Camp activities here! They are free!

• Fantasy: Make a Mask
• Funkytown: Make Musical Instruments
• Farmstead: (Shhh... it’s a secret!)
• Fun and Games: Making Games
• Flight: Make Things Fly
• Far out Future: (Shhh... It’s a secret!)

Trish Tsoiasue is thrilled to see the Maker and Making community growing and thriving in Long Beach. It’s been a journey of many years so far, and the journey is still just beginning.