Let's celebrate
Cruces Creatives! Several years ago, as Lea Wise-Surguy was
graduating from college, she had a sudden realization: “I would
lose my access to the tools and space I used, and lose a creative
community.”
She liked the idea
of a makerspace – where artists, artisans, kids, and grownups could
gather to share resources and knowledge to make or repair stuff. A
way to enable folks who lack tools or a workshop to work and
collaborate with others.
Lea decided to make
a makerspace. She investigated cities where she might try to do so,
checking on their financial health and how well they funded public
institutions. She visited some of the finalists. Several cities
looked good, but a key question was “how friendly are the people?”
Her answer: “I fell in love with Las Cruces.”
When I first
learned Lea and others were discussing a makerspace here, it sounded
great, but I wasn't sure it could actually happen. (We'd just been
exactly there with KTAL Community Radio.)
Recently we spent a
morning at Cruces Creatives learning to build a Johnson-Su
Bioreactor. (“Supercomposters” invented by David Johnson and
Wei-jen Su. The two we made are now in use.)
A couple of years
ago CC was a gleam in its founders' eyes. Now it's a real place
where people make real things, and learn to make things; where people
fix bicycles, weave, and record songs; and where there is an open-mic
night, an art gallery, a classroom, and much more.
CC opened its doors
at 205 East Lohman eighteen months ago. People can join and have
access to the many tools and technologies, either by paying a monthly
fee or by volunteering three hours a week. Tools include computers
and printers, a woodworking shop, art materials, industrial sewing
machines, audio and video equipment, and various technologies.
I'm impressed by
the variety of things CC is doing with and for our community,
sometimes in partnership with schools, Branigan Library, NMSU, and
others. CC volunteers have made textile-based goods for Jardin de
Los Niños, the animal
shelter, and refugees; another program promotes regenerative
agriculture and assists farmers.
One excellent
feature is the Job Shop, where CC will build or help build a
prototype or object. For example, CC made the internal structure and
encasement for Electronic Caregiver's Addison Care, its famous
virtual caregiver. That product has been shown at industry events
and deployed to help people. (Kudos to both Electronic Caregiver and
CC on this collaboration. EC was on the point of going to a design
firm in Arizona, but decided to give CC a try.)
th and
5th graders STEAM (STEM plus Art), and to teach life
skills to developmentally-delayed adults.
 |
| CC's custom units for Childrens Museum |
Lea calls CC “maybe
Makerspace 2.0. We've expanded our capabilities. It's more
community-focused.”
I call it an
example of, “If you build it, they will come.” If you create a
space with tools, and invite people to create, they will. That's the
story of CC (and of KTAL Radio, a new station with basic equipment
drawing a stellar set of show-hosts and other volunteers. If given
the chance, people will band together to do what they want or need to
do.
The “products”
of these collaborations are great. Greater still is the enhanced
sense of community we all gain.
-30-
[The column above appeared this morning, Sunday, 15 December 2019, in the Las Cruces Sun-News, as well as on the newspaper's website and on KRWG's website. A spoken version is also available on the KRWG site, and will air during the week on both KRWG and KTAL, 101.5 FM (www.lccommunityradio.org). ]
[To learn more about Cruces Creatives, go to the website -- https://crucescreatives.org/ -- and you can also go to KTAL's website, click on archives, and hear an interview from 11 December 2019 with Lea and others from Cruces Creatives on "Speak Up, Las Cruces!" ]
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