Makeshop™

A creative space to play with ideas, explore materials, and tinker with tools.

Children's Museum of Pittsburgh

MAKEnight, April 4

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MAKEnight is an amazing event held at the Museum.  It is an after-hours event that lets adults (and only adults) play and explore in the Museum.  The event has been a huge success over the past couple of months.  We decided to make this latest MAKEnight a little bit different from the others. Typically, we only have attendees explore and…

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Meet a Maker!

If you’ve visited the MAKESHOP on a weekend, chances are you’ve met and created with Allison! Name/ Nickname: Alison, but some of my friends and family call me Ali or Al. Favorite color: Hot pink! (And green) How long have you been working at Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh? I started working in MAKESHOP in August 2012 but I’ve been helping…

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A Week in MAKESHOP (in two minutes)

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MAKESHOP is not a static exhibit.  It changes to accommodate a variety of activities and programs, such as schools groups, guest makers, play-testing, meetings, photo shoots, themed activities, etc.  Tables get moved, messes are made (and cleaned up), things are broken (and fixed), and everyone has fun. We made a time-lapse video of the workshop side of MAKESHOP over the span of an…

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MAKEnight

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The third MAKEnight, an after hours event for adults, was held onFebruary 7th and it was a blast!  Over 150 adults visited the museum for a fun night of making. We had many activities in MAKESHOP and STUDIO that encouraged people explore and create.  In MAKESHOP, we let people felt using special felting needles along with a form of wet…

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Teenagers and Shopbots

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The Museum sees a lot of visitors every week.  Most of them are under five years old, but every week during the school year, a group of 6-8th grade students visit the Museum for our after-school program, YouthALIVE! These students visit MAKESHOP about once a month. We try to give them design challenges to help them to be creative and…

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Glowing Bots!

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Every month we have a theme that helps us to decide on new activities for MAKESHOP.  We spent the month of December making projects and exploring materials that GLOW.  We had glow-in-the-dark fabric, UV LEDs, lots of holiday lights, light painting, and some glow-in-the-dark paint.  I had the brilliant idea to combine some of the GLOW activities with a ShopBot…

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Meet a Maker!

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Meet Christian, the master of puns! Christian is one of our MAKESHOP Teaching Artists. Name: Christian Favorite color: Red (and black) How long have you been working at The Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh? September 2011 When did you know you were a maker? I don’t think I identified myself as a “Maker” until recently. I’ve always made, tinkered, and disassembled things though. I…

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Youth Maker Night

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In November, MAKESHOP hosted the first ever Youth Maker Night.  Kids, ages 10 to 15, were given the opportunity to visit MAKESHOP after hours without their parents.  We had a lot of electricity activities for the youth to make things and explore.  The circuit blocks were out with some conductive play-doh. We also had LED lights and conductive tape, and…

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Ready to Glow!

Every month we have a different theme, putting in activities that are new and different. December’s theme is GLOW. We’re preparing a whole lot of new activities like blacklight drawing and glowing putty, and keeping in some favorites like light painting and stop motion!  We might even have real glowing mushrooms (proven non-toxic non-poisonous.) There will also be GLOW activities…

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Meet a Maker!

Rounding out the veterans of  MAKESHOP is Kevin, who has worked at the Children’s Museum for over five years. Whether you need help using a new tool, lifting something heavy, or need to hang out with someone who exudes patience, he is the guy to find! Name: Kevin Favorite color: Black How long have you worked at Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh: 2007…

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