“We don’t ever want it to be finished” - Museum of Making opens at Derby's UNESCO site

2021-06-07T13:22:00-04:00

A new museum in England has given new life to a 300-year-old factory building after an £18 million capital campaign.

The aptly named Museum of Making is now open and operational inside a repurposed former factory space at the Derwent Valley Mills, which was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2001.

MoM Exterior 5 – Credit Derby Museums & Art Lewry, Culture Communications Collective

Leeds-based Bauman Lyons has partnered with Derby Museums since 2011 to spearhead a redesign of the historic mill using an innovative hands-on approach that meant working with community members to collaborate on a model for what eventually became the first DIY museum in the country.

A 2015 ground floor refurbishment left an open space for volunteers to "fit-out" with the help of makers-in-residence, which led to an expanded effort the firm credited to the "maker" movement.

The Gateway at the Museum of Making - Speller Metcalfe-Derby Museums

The Museum, now a Grade II Listed Building, is unique bot...

A tale of two parks: debate rages over a new plan for a "Maker Park" in Brooklyn

2016-05-31T17:39:00-04:00

The original plan [for a new park in Brooklyn] would tear down the graveyard of rusting oil refineries that sit on the site, which stretches from Greenpoint to Williamsburg along the East River, and return the reedy riverbank to something closer to nature. The new idea, called Maker Park, would keep the refineries and turn them into a sort of industrial theme park — “a beautiful and otherworldly industrial topography,” according to the website of its advocates.

The plot of land in question is along the Bushwick Inlet in Brooklyn.

The times keep a-changin' in Brooklyn. In related news:

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“We don’t ever want it to be finished” - Museum of Making opens at Derby's UNESCO site

A tale of two parks: debate rages over a new plan for a "Maker Park" in Brooklyn