[Peace] Inaugural Mini Maker Faire this weekend at IMC

[Brian Dolinar]

Some folks with a DIY spirit might enjoy this event. BD

*Inaugural Mini Maker Faire comes to Urbana-Champaign:
Do-it-yourself event brings technology and craft together under one roof*

Join us for the inaugural Urbana-Champaign Mini Maker Faire on Saturday,
April 16, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., at the Independent Media Center, 202 S.
Broadway, in downtown Urbana. Prices: $3 for adults; $1 for kids under 12.



This one-day, family-friendly event celebrates the Do-It-Yourself spirit in
our community with demonstrations in arts, crafts, engineering, music,
science, and technology projects. At the UC Mini Maker Faire, the focus is
on the process of making—not just the finished product. Unlike a typical
sale or bazaar, Makers show how to create things instead of just selling
their wares.



Emerging from the national “maker movement” founded largely by MAKE
Magazine, Make: Online, and CRAFT, Maker Faires have rapidly made a
significant impact on American culture today. These regional events feature
things people create themselves, from James Bond-worthy electronic gizmos to
robotics and rockets, to crocheted food items and yarn bombs. There has been
extensive national coverage of the “maker movement” in publications such as
the New York Times, CNN, and ABC News. Find more information about the Maker
Faire movement at http://makerfaire.com.



“This day of learning offers people skills instead of just more stuff,” said
Brian Duggan, co-organizer of UC Mini Maker Faire and co-founder of
Makerspace Urbana, a community group of the Independent Media Center that
provides an open technology lab for folks to build, tinker, innovate, and
share.



UC Maker Faire is organized by a team of DiYers headed by Duggan and Sarah
Dolinar, local knitter and marketing/communications specialist. The
committee includes Erich Heine, Jonathan Manton, Debra Woods, and Gail Rost
and Peter Woods, both of The I.D.E.A. Store of the Champaign Unified Schools
Foundation.


UC Mini Maker Faire includes a variety of makers: The I.D.E.A Store; the
FabLab; Makerspace Urbana; Central Illinois Aerospace; Radical Librarians;
CMKT4; the Bike Project of Champaign-Urbana; Wind, Water & Light; the
Costume Closet of the IMC; ODDMUSIC Urbana-Champaign; and the School for
Designing a Society. Demonstrations will range from paper folding to bike
maintenance, from zine-making to rocket-making, from sewing skills to
designing musical instruments.



The event is sponsored by Makerspace Urbana, The I.D.E.A. Store, University
of Illinois NetMath Program, Dixon Graphics, and Common Ground Food Co-op;
and is supported by MAKE and CRAFT magazines. More information at
http://ucmakerfaire.blogspot.com.



*Information about Makerspace Urbana*

Makerspace Urbana is a community group, whose goal is to "provide an open
community lab where people of diverse backgrounds can learn, teach, tinker,
collaborate, share, innovate, socialize, and create."  Towards this end they
provide space, equipment and know-how so people at all levels can come and
build things that would otherwise be inaccessible to them. Makerspace Urbana
achieves this by a combination of open hours, small workshops, and long-term
projects. Recently they hosted a afternoon session on how to make an
electric instrument out anything, using piezoelectric microphones. As a
current project, they are a participating in a competition called the Great
Global Hackerspace Challenge The GGHC provided a grant to Makerspace Urbana,
and in return, they are building robots for education.  For more info please
visit the website athttp://makerspaceurbana.org.

-- 
Sarah Dolinar
sarahdolinar at gmail.com

*Join me at the UC MINI MAKER FAIRE*
Saturday, April 16, 2011, 10am - 3pm
Independent Media Center, downtown Urbana
make | craft | inspire

ucmakerfaire.blogspot.com


-- 
Brian Dolinar, Ph.D.
303 W. Locust St.
Urbana, IL 61801
briandolinar at gmail.com
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