Showing posts with label NextFab. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NextFab. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 14, 2018

New Partnership Enriches Curricula, Arts District

This post content courtesy of a press release from the Delaware College of Art & Design...

A recently launched collaboration between the Delaware College of Art and Design (DCAD) and NextFab makerspaces aims to enhance DCAD’s programs of study, increase NextFab’s footprint on Wilmington’s Creative District and further the redevelopment of the city's downtown.

DCAD, the Mid-Atlantic Region’s only two-year professional art and design college, offers the associate of fine arts degree in animation, fine arts, graphic design, illustration and photography and has served as an anchor institution in the revitalization of Wilmington since its founding in 1997. NextFab, which has three locations in the Mid-Atlantic, provides access to tools, technology, training, events, consulting and capital for creatives of any skill level.

The first phase of the partnership, already under way, provides NextFab memberships to all DCAD faculty to help them develop ways of integrating the latest in traditional and digital technology and artistic innovation into DCAD’s curricula while furthering their own development as artists. Subsequent phases will include field trips to NextFab for students to use the stateoftheart equipment, software and instruction for class assignments and provision of NextFab memberships to all degree-program students for use in completing coursework and for creating extracurricular art and design projects.

DCAD President John Hawkins noted that today’s creatives are highly multi-disciplinary – experts in one or two mediums yet familiar with and possessing a facility with many others. The NextFab collaboration increases DCAD’s ability to further student development in this direction while also giving students the chance to work in an environment characteristic of a contemporary art and design practice; gain exposure to new and evolving mediums and technologies; and connect with a wider network of professional artists and designers.

According to NextFab sales and marketing director Eric Kaplan, the makerspace is eager to play this role.

“Our Wilmington location has been open over six months now, and we’ve been steadily reaching more local creatives,” Kaplan said. “We are incredibly excited to have an official partnership with DCAD that will benefit both students and faculty, and we’re hopeful we can continue to explore ways of integrating technology and innovation into DCAD’s creative curriculum in the future.”

Mayor Michael Purzycki and managing director Carrie W. Gray of the Wilmington Renaissance Corp./Creative District Wilmington recently joined DCAD and NextFab representatives to officially celebrate the launch of the partnership. The event held at NextFab’s Wilmington headquarters including tours of the site and souvenir picture frames designed and crafted by NextFab and filled with artwork created by DCAD students.

“We have the richness of the arts with the richness of technology and the creativity of what is demonstrated right here,” Purzycki said. “I can’t imagine anything better for our city.”

Gray agreed. “WRC helped drive the founding of DCAD, and we led the recruitment of NextFab to Wilmington,” she said. “So now to have a partnership between these organizations is helping to realize the vision for a robust creative community and economy in Wilmington.”

See www.dcad.edu

Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Delaware's first Makerspace to Open in Wilmington's Creative District

This content originated from the Wilmington Creative District's blog...

Wilmington’s Creative District has taken another big step forward as it welcomes a new creative partnership.  The District's next move will see NextFab Studio make its second home in Wilmington, from its origins in Philadelphia. 

NextFab Studio, LLC (“NextFab”) will expand operations south of Philadelphia and open a makerspace in downtown Wilmington with assistance from a $350,000 Delaware Strategic Fund grant recently approved by the Council on Development Finance.

Delaware Governor Jack Markell said: “The company’s creative approach to making much-needed technological resources and education available, as well as its commitment to reinvigorating American manufacturing, makes NextFab a perfect addition to Wilmington’s downtown Creative District.”

Founded in 2009 by Dr. Evan Malone, NextFab’s mission is to foster personal fulfillment, innovation, and economic development through providing broad-based awareness of, access to, competence with, and commerce enabled by Next-generation digital design and Fabrication technologies and services. Like a gym for exercising your creativity, there are no prerequisites to joining NextFab as a member, and NextFab’s member community includes more than 650 individuals from every conceivable background. NextFab members have direct access to state-of-the-art equipment, software, training, consultants — everything they need to master new tools and techniques, and turn an idea into a product and product into a business. NextFab’s instructors and consultants span an enormous range of disciplines and experience, including engineering, arts, business, and science. NextFab currently operates two facilities in Philadelphia, and plans to open its latest 3,500 square-foot facility in Wilmington’s Creative District in the first half of 2016.

The Wilmington Creative District is a part of a national wave of creative placemaking initiatives that seek to transform urban areas. The project encompasses the area in downtown Wilmington bounded by Fourth, Ninth, Market and Washington Streets and, with the active engagement of a variety of partners from the private and public sectors, will continue the momentum of LOMA and Market Street. The Creative District will be focused on creative production and consumption, a place where creative entrepreneurs — artists, musicians, designers, tech innovators, makers and manufacturers — and neighborhood residents thrive and where locally designed goods and original works are made and consumed.

This revitalization will engage the community — current and future residents, as well as civic and business leaders — in a range of initiatives and programs that include:

  • affordable housing
  • greening and streetscape projects
  • real estate development
  • programming and community engagement
  • public art and public performance projects
  • centers for creative entrepreneurship