How do you make at home?
Your invitation to take part in the East Leeds Project Making at Home Survey.
Since 2018 we’ve been working on the East Leeds Pavilion, our ambition to co-create the first ever Maker Space in this part of the city, with our partners and local residents. For us, a ‘maker’ is anyone who makes things with their hands, everything from growing and baking to any art, craft and design practices.
As a starter, our Directors and artist in residence Matt Green have produced creative responses to their own making spaces, as illustrated below.
Our research has included a project for last summer’s Gipton Gala called What Makes Gipton? as well as a social event, community-led asset mapping, and an online survey which is still live and can be accessed here. We’ve talked to over 200 people so far, but we still want to hear more about what artists and makers in East Leeds do – and just to be clear, we don’t have a strict geographic definition of East Leeds, so if you feel like you identify with the east of the city, that’s good enough for us.
The Coronavirus crisis is presenting all sorts of challenges for artists and makers, and we’re keen to hear more about how people are making at home right now.
If you’re happy to share your thoughts on your own space for making, we’d love to hear from you as this research will contribute to the design of the Pavilion.
Could you take us on a short video tour of your space, or send us some photographs, or just write your thoughts down?
We’re inviting all of the above and any other creative ways you might want to use, to tell us something about the maker space that you call home right now.
As a guide you might think about the following:
- What do you make and how do you make it?
- What equipment do you use?
- Do you have a dedicated space for making, like a home studio, or do you work at the kitchen table, or in a converted shed, garage or back bedroom?
- Are the things in your making space collected and arranged in a particular way? How does this support your making?
- How does your environment inspire you?
- When do you find time to make?
- Do you make alone or with others? How do you stay connected with other makers?
- What are the challenges you face in making at home?
- Is the crisis changing how you might think about making in the longer term?
Submissions can be made via uploading here
We won’t share them with anyone else right now, but we might contact you later on to see if we could use your material when we share our research more widely.
Thank you and we’re looking forward to finding out more about making in East Leeds during lockdown.
East Leeds Pavilion partners:
