Maker Faires live on

Larry Moss, Dave Brenn, and Danielle Payne in Kansas City, standing in front of a bubble mural created by a team of more than a dozen Maker Faire Volunteers that worked with hundreds of community participants.

A few weeks ago some sad news hit the maker world. Maker Media, the company responsible for Make: Magazine, Maker Faires, and popularizing what we now refer to as the “maker movement” shut down due to financial difficulties. Anyone following Airigami knows that Maker Faires have been a significant part of our existence for a while. We’ve always loved including a community component to our large installations. Through our appearances at various Maker Faires around the world, we’ve not only found ways of offering new hands-on elements to our builds, but enjoyed the community of makers that are anxious to learn new things and jump in to learn and assist on these projects.

As sad as we are to see Maker Media go away, makers are not going away. Makers tend to favor taking old things out of the closet and repurposing them rather than buying tons of new stuff. Makers are the sort of people that find uses for parts of things that no longer function as they once did, or find new purpose for things that are no longer needed for the problem they once solved. That need that makers feel to tinker won’t go away simply because the Maker Media brand is no longer front and center. There’s even lots of talk that Maker Media isn’t gone completely. Dale Dougherty, the founder of the company, has said he’s trying to do exactly what any maker would. He’s working on a way to reach into the closet of archived content and resources and restructure the company into something that can continue to serve the maker community.

While we wait to see what Dale is able to create from the old Maker Media, we want to get the message out there that Maker Faires aren’t going away any time soon. While the flagship Faires produced directly by Maker Media may not come back, the vast majority of Maker Faires are independently run. Those Faires are still with us and going strong. In the last few weeks, Airigami appeared at two Maker Faires. Thanks to Marsha Gallagher, TJ Michael, and Jenny Henry for working with us to lead a Bubble Mural project at Maker Faire NoVa on June 2. And thanks to Dave Brenn and Danielle Payne, and the many volunteers provided by Maker Faire Kansas City for help with the Bubble Mural we just completed last weekend at Union Station in Kansas City, MO.

Time lapse of the construction of an Airigami Bubble Mural at Union Station in KC during the Kansas City Maker Faire June 22-23, 2019. Hundreds of participants took part in the construction. Design by Kelly Cheatle, project led by Larry Moss. Huge thanks to Dave Brenn (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCk8wObFqTEwoO474UFtlpAA) and Danielle Payne for their many hours of assistance on the project.

Next Maker Faire Bubble Mural will be …

There are more Maker Faires on the horizon for us. The next one on our calendar is Maker Faire Tulsa. We’ll be in Tulsa, OK on August 24, 2019.