Conner Prairie is opening an exhibit that teaches kids sewing and woodworking

Susie Schmank
IndyStar Arts Fellow
This past spring, Conner Prairie opened a pop-up Makesmith Workshop where visitors could hone their skills in activities like woodworking.

A 600-square-foot plywood building is under construction in the Welcome Center at Conner Prairie. Inside will be the Makesmith Workshop, a permanent space designated for visitors to build things, opening Jan. 11.

“This is Conner Prairie’s interpretation of the maker movement that’s happening in the country,” said Brian Mancuso, Conner Prairie’s director of exhibits.

“We have the historic trades, such as pottery, textile and woodworking, so we’re marrying history and the maker movement around those historic trades to allow people to have contact with real tools and materials and actually make something.”

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The Makesmith Workshop, which is open to ages 3 and above and free with museum admission, will focus on one specific trade at a time, beginning with textile activities.

“The textile portion will range from plastic needle and pegboard activities, scaling all the way up to using sewing machines. If you’re curious about how to sew a button or how a sewing machine works, our staff can help guide that,” Mancuso said.

This past spring, Conner Prairie opened a pop-up Makesmith Workshop where visitors could hone their skills in activities like woodworking.

The second focus will be woodworking, which, Mancuso explained, includes a young child driving nails into a table while an older sibling might be doing the same thing but with a certain piece of wood and project in mind, such as building a bookcase.

The museum will keep visitors’ creations, but the exhibit’s organizers are working on a program designed for visitors to purchase materials they make.

While the workshop’s first two months are set, the next focus has yet to be determined by the space’s organizers. According to Mancuso, the key to running these spaces is being flexible to meet their visitors’ needs and explorations.

“I always like to see where the intersection of things go,” Mancuso said. “Where our collection can inspire people is what will be most interesting to see.”

Susie Schmank is a 2017 Arts Journalism Fellow. The fellowship is a partnership between the Arts Council of Indianapolis and IndyStar.