Programs Makeshift Society Residency, 2013-2015

Makeshift Society was a coworking space I founded for creative freelancers, artists and business owners to get together and mix it up. It was a clubhouse, a classroom, a salon, a lending library, a conference center, a pop-up shop, and an event space. It was also a laboratory to test the theory that online friendships need to move offline to build trust, cement relationships, and lead to successful creative collaborations.

I designed a quarterly residency program to offer space and resources to a variety of people who had interesting, community-minded projects they wanted to work on. The Maker-in-Residence could take advantage of both the physical space plus the communal resources at hand. In exchange, they worked on a project of their choosing, documenting their progress through the Makeshift blog, and at the end of the residency, they conducted a lecture to the membership about their project.

Our residents’ talents ranged widely and included graphic design, fashion design, app design, painting, podcasting, performance art, urban placemaking, architecture, design thinking, and event design.