Tinker Space. It is a community workspace designed to allow those who tinker, program, invent, build, code, problem solve, and so much more, have the space and equipment needed to dream big and then turn those dreams into reality. Soon we’ll have one here in Crossville.
An open, well-lit space ready to welcome Upper Cumberland tinkers in 2015! The vision for the space is that of a co-working space/tinker space/artists’ studio where woodworkers can build, sculptors can sculpt, inventors can invent, programmers can code, quilters can quilt, and so much more. Located on the Roane State Community College campus in Crossville, the Cumberland Business Incubator (CBI) will be the home of the Tinker Space.
I get excited when I think of what has already happened at the CBI. We have offered classes in 3D printing (and in the Tinker Space we will have our own 3D printer), teaching things like how to get your 3D shape to the printer and avoiding some of the pitfalls that others have experienced. Designing and creating your own 3D object, as opposed to printing one from an open-source app. Soldering electronic circuits using an Arduino, and dreaming about controlling the environment at home from your smart phone. Building Little Free Libraries and so much more.
Women and men are welcome in the Tinker Space. It is important that the space be as inviting to girls and women as it is to boys and men. The CBI Tinker Space welcomes ALL tinkers, from the fashion designer wanting to embed electronics into clothes to the maker wanting to utilize a laser cutter to create intricate designs on metal. No matter the end result, the Tinker Space will be here to allow it to happen.
The most incredible thing about a Tinker Space is the potential. It’s everything that hasn’t yet happened. It is the teenager who will discover a passion for a lost art that is no longer taught in schools. It is the parent whose Etsy shop turns into a sustainable income. It is the coder who puts out the next app that changes lives, or the software developer who ends up with his or her company name on the stock exchange. It is all of those things and so much more that we can’t begin to imagine because right now, or perhaps not even yet, it is just a twinkle in someone’s eye.
The timeline? We’re collecting the tools, building out the space, and getting things ready. In January we’ll call a meeting of the newly formed advisory committee to help define the day to day aspects of utilizing the space and tweak the policies and procedures so we can start marketing Tinker Space memberships.
Interested in helping? Have a skill or talent that you’re ready to share with others? Call Bonnie at 931-456-4910 and let her know that you’re interested in being on the advisory committee, becoming a mentor or a member of the community of Tinkers that we’ll be building.
The Tinker Space at the CBI. It’s been a twinkle in my eye for quite some time!
