CRAFT@Large: Building Community Through Co-Making

TL;DR

This paper presents CRAFT@Large, an inclusive initiative at Cornell Tech that fosters long-term, equal co-making collaborations between community members and academic makerspaces to strengthen intercultural and intergenerational exchange.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach to community engagement in academic makerspaces by involving community members as long-term, equal co-makers rather than occasional visitors.

Findings

Community members participated as long-term co-makers.

Academic makerspaces served as hubs for sustained community engagement.

Long-term collaborations enhanced intercultural and intergenerational exchange.

Abstract

CRAFT@Large (C@L) is an initiative launched by the MakerLAB at Cornell Tech to create an inclusive environment for the intercultural and intergenerational exchange of ideas through making. With our approach, we challenge the traditional definition of community outreach performed by academic makerspaces. Existing academic makerspaces often perform community engagement by only offering hourly, one-time workshops or by having community members provide a problem that is then used by students as a project assignment. These approaches position community members as occasional visitors and non-equal contributors, which not only conflict with the core values of co-creation but also limit the makerspaces' impact on connecting the universities and the communities. C@L explored an alternative approach in which we invited community members as long-term and equal co-makers into the academic makerspaces. In this article, we showcase two sets of collaborations that illustrate the continuity of people through co-making. We present how academic makerspaces can function as a hub that connects community members and partner organizations with the campus community in a long-term relationship.