The Underground Studio makes meanings
“We have access to incredible technology, like the smartphone recording this interview, for example,” says Brent Wettlaufer, the Underground Studio coordinator at THEMUSEUM, taking note of the phone-turned-recorder on the table. “As a user, we don’t need to know how it works, but that means we’re missing out on so much about how it’s made.”
Wettlaufer, along with a passionate team of museum and education professionals is in the process of building a space that encourages the opposite. THEMUSEUM’s Underground Studio Makerspace is slated to open November 20.
A self-identified maker of all kinds, Wettlaufer explains to me that a mantra, “it all starts here,” is at the heart of the Underground Studio, which is filling an ever-increasing need for STEAM programming geared toward the region’s youngest makers.
And while children ages 6 to 17 are the focus of the Underground Studio, other modified events and workshops are expected for the demographic Wettlaufer coined as “children of all ages.”
THEMUSEUM’s education team has crafted workshops that lay outside of what would be found in a formal education setting. Seven core streams of programming (3D modelling, woodworking, silk screening, circuitry and soldering, textiles, computer programming and deconstruction) will be offered through school groups and child-parent sessions.
“A key component of the space is constructivism, learning by doing, and deconstruction, taking apart for no reason other than taking apart,” says Wettlaufer describing the theory behind the soon-to-launch programming. “We don’t have to care about assessment, because we’re a museum.”
With that, Wettlaufer answers an oft-asked question before it’s asked. Why is it that a museum, one with an incredible diversity of exhibitions on everything from quantum computing to nudity, would care to build a makerspace?
“Museums are about meaning-making above all else,” says Brent, punctuating his point very clearly by leaning into the still recording smartphone he suggested taking apart five minutes ago.
“We want to help visitors make connections they wouldn’t have expected when they walked in; a makerspace makes that physical as opposed to just conceptual.”
At least, it’s soon to be physical. The Underground Studio, aptly named, is nearing the end of its construction in the basement of the THEMUSEUM’s King and Queen Street locale.
This high-tech space, though studded with circuit boards and leading software, is quite literally being rooted in history. The Underground Studio shares an address with the block that once hosted Goudie’s, but as Wettlaufer sees it, it will share much more with earlier eras too.
“It’s adding to a living history here,” he says, noting the room full of locally made goods from craft beer to wooden tables to smartphone software used for recording interviews.
“We have something here that the Silicon Valley doesn’t have – generations of makers. Maybe we haven’t always been making with 3D printers, but we have always been a DIY culture.”
THEMUSEUM will host an open house for the Underground Studio grand opening. It begins at 10 a.m. on November 20 with remarks, including an address from Mayor Vrbanovic at 1 p.m.