Bubbler Idea Wall: Crowdsourcing our next big project!
Maker Ed is so excited to welcome The Bubbler at Madison Public Library as a Maker Corps Partner Site in 2016. For the fourth year of Maker Corps, Maker Ed will collaborate with more than forty organizations across the globe to host Maker Corps Members throughout the summer to bring maker activities and approaches to the communities that they serve. Below is a glimpse into what Maker Corps will look like at The Bubbler. If you are interested in spending the summer at The Bubbler, apply now to become a Maker Corps Member!
The Bubbler & Maker Corps 2016
The Bubbler at Madison Public Library is a system-wide maker focused program that hosts creative arts and maker focused activities for all ages in the Madison’s diverse community. While the Bubbler does have a dedicated space in Madison’s Central Library, it also hosts workshops for families and adults in all nine libraries around the city. Unlike some other maker programs, the Bubbler tends to prioritize people over stuff, providing a platform for the amazing artists in the Madison community to share their craft in our space and creating opportunities for community collaboration around making. Our programming includes an Artist in Residency program at Central Library, travelling workshops with community artists in all nine libraries for all ages, creative writing series classes, and artist lead programs in collaboration with outreach organization and afterschool programs.
Artist-in-Residence Craig Grabhorn takes screen printing into the neighborhood libraries.
We are always looking for ways to expand our options for programming and our reach to every part of Madison’s diverse community. This summer, we are expanding our offerings for hands on, open-ended making programming through traveling Maker Kits targeted towards children and families. Each of our kits is designed to offer chances for open ended play, while introducing maker skills like sewing, circuitry, stop motion animation, or innovative construction. By hosting these drop in workshops in our library spaces, we are excited to give patrons new reasons to come to the library!
We are excited to be a Maker Corps placement for the first time this year! We are excited to use this opportunity to build and refine our transportable Maker Kits for use for years to come. Some of our Maker Kits already designed include a Sock Monster kit (think sock monkey, but monsters!), engineering challenge kits with Strawbeez and recycled materials, circuit blocks and paper circuits kits, MakeyMakeys, and stop motion animation stations. Our Maker Corps members will be travelling to different locations with these kits, helping to facilitate making, and helping us gather meaningful feedback about their success.
Bubbler artists hard at work on a Bubbler Animation Station at the Milwaukee Maker Faire
We would like our Maker Corps members to be enthusiastic extensions of the library and eager to engage with library patrons. They would be working in collaboration with the many youth services librarians in Madison libraries, but also independently. While several of our Maker Kits are already created, we would love for our Maker Corps members to propose new ideas to build our offerings. Our Maker Corps members will have awesome opportunities to learn digital and analog creation as well as gain invaluable experience in working with the public.
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