Maker Arts Space
Kent Watson (far right) introduces students to the computer numerical control (CNC) router during a workshop. Photo: Ashley Sisto '20.
Students use a 3D scanner during a workshop in the Maker Arts space. Photo: Dex Coen Gilbert '21.
Maker Arts Technician and Coordinator Kent Watson shows students how to use the laser cutter during a "Design and Make" workshop. Photo: Dex Coen Gilbert '21
Photo: Ashley Sisto '20.
Bella Merchant (Bryn Mawr) and Rasaaq Shittu (Haverford) working on a 3D printed Prosthetic in the VCAM Maker Arts Space. Photo: Kent Watson
The Maker Arts Space offers digital fabrication and traditional craft opportunities for students, staff, and faculty. Through coursework, workshops, and studio hours, the lab serves as a place of experimentation and collaboration with an emphasis in learning new technologies to empower participants to design, make, prototype, and build across the disciplines.
Open Studio
Hours
Tuesday: 4-8:30 p.m.
Wednesday: 4-8:30 p.m.
Thursday: 4-8:30 p.m.
Friday: 1:30-5:30 p.m.
Sunday: 1-6 p.m.
About Open Studio
Open Studio Hours are weekly hours monitored by Student Workers in the Maker Arts Space. These are hours available to students, faculty, and staff. Though walk-ins are welcome, each machine has material restrictions and training requirements that you will have to satisfy before using it. If in doubt, please ask. Students and the Maker Arts Space Technician, Kent Watson, are available to help. The hours change each semester and are dependent on student worker schedules. Hours are typically posted the second week of classes and can be found on the maker space website or outside the door of the Maker Arts Space.
Training & Tutoring Skill Shares
Students are welcome to sign up for our training and tutoring sessions. Learn about 3D printing, soldering, circuit design, and more!
Equipment & Software
Equipment: 3D Printers, 3D Scanner, Vinyl Cutter, Soldering Irons, Laser Cutter, Hand Tools.
View the Equipment
Software: Fusion 360, z Brush, Mesh Mixer, Sculptris, Maya, Cinema 4D, AutoCAD, Sketch Up, Arduino, Processing, Python, Adobe Creative Suite, Cura, Slicer, and more.
Rules
- Clean up after yourself.
- Be courteous, helpful, and respectful to your peers.
- Each machine has material restrictions and training requirements that you will have to satisfy before using it. If in doubt, please ask.
- The room may be used for special events from time to time, respect these events and do not interrupt.
- Please sign in when you show up.
Book the Lab for a Class
Faculty are invited to utilize the Maker Arts Space to support course curriculum and class requirements. Review our common sessions and schedule a class demonstration/workshop by contacting Kent Watson. Demonstrations and Training
Policies
Battery Disposal
As part of the Sustainability Strategic Plan at Haverford the Maker Arts Space offers battery disposal. Please bring used batteries to the Maker Arts Space during Open Studio Hours.
The Latest
Design + Make Toys // Summer 2022: Students will be presented with several toy design prompts and challenged to create prototypes. Learn digital fabrication techniques and hands-on skills. Along the way there will be collaborative activities, group projects, discussions, presentations, and much more. Applications Open: January 12. Deadline to Apply: March 4.
Design + Make Summer Fellows in the VCAM’s Maker Arts Space spent eight weeks designing and prototyping objects of play for Turning Points for Children and Playful Learning Landscapes.
Mondays in October, 4:30-6pm: This four-part workshop is an introduction to the music production software Ableton Live. Participants will gain experience recording audio and learning the basics of editing, mixing, and sampling. Remote Participants Encouraged! Space is Limited. RSVP!
Learn about upcoming fall events, workshops, and series sponsored by VCAM.
The following new policies and procedures are now in effect for fall 2020 to promote the safety of students, staff, and faculty using and working in VCAM.
Due to COVID-19, the College’s first ever Design + Making Collaborative had to be run virtually, but that didn’t keep its three student participants from creating utensil-holding devices for a double amputee via a partnership with E-Nable.
This visual studies course introduces students to critical design and creative practices that address technologies that are worn on the body, that digitize the body, and that extend the body.
Austin Huber ’19 and Nicky Rhodes ’19 are taking advantage of the burgeoning makerspace movement to build a sustainable, open-source design platform that allows customers to fully personalize their spaces.
Mohamed Ali ’22 created a robotic prosthetic hand in the College's Maker Space.
Prototype, a Pittsburgh-based feminist maker collective, illuminated conversations about accessibility and identity in the Maker Arts Space during their visit to campus.
An exhibition in the VCAM’s Create Space chronicles a first-year’s process of building a guitar from scratch using the building’s Maker Space tools.
Campus Location
The Maker Arts Space is located in the lower level of the VCAM building, Room 005. View Map.