Making Room for Creativity

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Kre8Now Makerspace offers hands-on workshops for tech and engineering innovation

When Doug Clarke decided three years ago to create a community space for hands-on creative enterprise, he had never heard the term “makerspace.”

Clarke, who formerly worked as a welder and machinist, had signed up for some additional training and certification classes after being laid off during the economic downturn. He noticed that many young graduates were being undervalued in terms of their starting salaries when they entered the workforce, primarily because they had spent all their time in classrooms instead of workshops.

“I thought, I would love to create a place to give young adults and graduating students more hands-on experience,” Clarke said.

That desire of Clarke’s led to the grand opening in early June of Kre8Now Makerspace, a collaborative community workshop designed to enable and inspire technology and innovation, housed in 12,000 square feet of industrial space on Manchester Street in Lexington’s rising Distillery District.

The space is stocked with a range of equipment, including a metal lathe, a CNC mill, welding equipment, woodworking tools, 3-D printers, a 300-inch projector screen, screen-printing equipment and a room for robotic design and drone-building.

For a membership fee of $35 per month, community members can have open-hour access to any of Kre8Now’s equipment, as long as they are qualified to use it safely, Clarke said. For those who don’t have the knowledge, the new makerspace also will offer classes and workshops, with 3,000 square feet of classroom space. Six classes are scheduled to begin in July on subjects ranging from software engineering to digital manufacturing, and Clarke said he hopes eventually to increase the offerings to six classes per week.

Makerspaces like Kre8Now have been coming onto the scene in urban areas across the country during the past decade, as part of a larger maker movement that has given rise to specialized magazines, websites and events. Today’s makers run the gamut from garage tinkerers and computer hackers to budding entrepreneurs and do-it-yourself enthusiasts. But they all share a basic interest in applying today’s increasingly accessible technology to build something of their own.

For many, the difficult part is finding the space and equipment they need. In addition to providing access and education to community members looking to engage their creativity, Clarke also wants Kre8Now to be a resource for local business start-ups. He said he plans to lease out roughly one-third of the space for business incubation, at a rate of $1 per square foot.

“There are a lot of businesses that can’t afford the bricks and mortar,” Clarke said. “All that overhead is stifling for a business just getting started.”

One such company is ArtLab, which specializes in low-cost 3-D printing and scanning, along with the sale of 3-D printers and related equipment. Founder Ben Broeck grew up in Lexington before moving to Los Angeles to pursue a career in visual effects. When he returned to Lexington, he decided to put his 3-D printing knowledge to work by starting his own business.

The cost for 3-D creation at ArtLab starts at $10 for the use of the equipment, Broeck said, with an added charge of 20 cents per gram for the plastic filament used in the process. Client projects have ranged from action figures and replicas of relatives to 3-D modeling of student architectural projects, Broeck said, and the company soon will be adding full-color 3-D printing capabilities to its repertoire.

ArtLab served as a pilot project for business incubation at Kre8Now, Clarke said.

“When Ben started out, he had a very modest business model, and it has really grown,” Clarke said. So much so, Clarke added, that he has since brought Broeck on board as a Kre8Now partner. Rob Savard is also a partner on the project.

There aren’t a lot of companies in Kentucky that are employing talent in 3-D technology, Broeck said, and the career prospects in the Bluegrass state are still slim at this point.

“[It’s] a hard job to get in Kentucky,” Broeck said. “There are virtually no jobs here for organic modeling.”

Broeck said he hopes that introducing more people to the technology and helping them to gain practical experience with it will help to change that.

Kre8Now is currently operating at about 40 percent capacity, Clarke said. He expects to increase that quickly, and he is already looking ahead toward expansion.

“We want to get another 10,000 square feet next store,” he said.

Memberships are available through the website www.patreon.com, a crowdfunding site similar to Kickstarter but without a designated project deadline. Clarke said the site also allows makers to help others in the community by donating money for creative individuals who can’t afford their own memberships. And while Kre8Now is intended as a space for adults, Clarke said members may bring younger makers with them to watch and learn.

By giving community members the chance to contribute to the work of other local innovators and making the fully equipped workshop accessible to a wide audience, Clarke hopes Kre8Now will expand science, technology, engineering and manufacturing applications at all levels across the Bluegrass.

Putting that new technology directly into the hands of more local people, Broeck added, is the ultimate aim.

“We are all about enabling the community,” Broeck said. “That’s the No. 1 goal of Kr8Now.” ss

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