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We were going to do some more workshops for the Winter season, but who has the time?  Between all the things on your (and our) to-do list and gatherings with family and friends, it’s just too much…  but here’s the perfect solution – Workshop Gift Certificates for The Brickyard Collaborative!  Get your shopping done easy, and take care of those Makers on your list while supporting The Brickyard Collaborative!

You have two choices – pick up a Single Workshop Gift Certificate for $25, or do a 3-fer – Three workshops for $60!  Purchase them through PayPal with a PayPal account or any major credit card, and make sure we have a valid mail address for you, and your Gift Certificates will go into the mail within a day.

Here are the links:

One Workshop

Three Workshops

Terms and Conditions

Certificates are good for any and all classes offered by The Brickyard Collaborative from January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2020.

Current classes offered are advertised through Facebook, our email list and our website.  The list of current classes is found at Workshops and Classes and will be updated as necessary.  We will make every attempt to offer the advertised classes in a timely fashion.

We will make every attempt to deliver your Gift Certificate, but are not responsible for errors in delivery by the USPS, or omission of current address by the purchaser.

Certificates are transferrable, but not refundable.

Certificates are not valid without an Authorized Signature by a representative of The Brickyard Collaborative.  

Student rates do not apply.  (Contact us if you’d like to make special arrangements for your student.) 

Yes.  We’ve been pretty quiet.

We were told back in September that we were awarded $5000 from the CDBG program, and again, about a week ago, by the Mayor’s office.  This funding is usually made available by the end of the summer, but it’s been held up…  by Congress.  Let that sink in for a minute – not only for us, but for the 20 or 30 organizations in this city that depend on the money to help out on everything from homeless shelters to meals-on-wheels.  …and all the organizations that rely on this funding, nationwide.

That’s money that we were counting on to continue our progress and repay some expenses that have come out of personal pockets.  That work has to be on hold for the moment.

We’ve been waiting for word on our Mass DEP grant, which would get us rolling with our recycling/upcycling/reuse programs, repair clinics and other important work.  That decision was supposed to be made in the end of September, and as yet, there’s no word.  Emails have been sent, no responses have been received.

Finally, as you have probably heard, we were awarded a $56,000 grant from MassDevelopment, which is awesome…  however, as you can imagine (or probably know), actually receiving the funds requires stringent review and a whole lot of coordination.  We thought we’d been through the hoops, but we learned quickly that there are many more hoops to hop.  Currently we’re trying to negotiate a lease – and if you’ve ever dealt with commercial real estate, you maybe have an idea of what that’s like.  (eg: “PLEASE.  I BEG OF YOU.  Just ANSWER YOUR EMAIL.” – edit: Persistence pays off – got through to the building owners today! – )

In the Department of Stuff We Have Control Over Dept., one thing we’re working on is putting together Workshop Gift Certificates for you and yours for the Holiday Season!  Nobody has time for extracurricular activities this time of year, so you can give the gift of Making in advance – either a Gift Certificate for any workshop, or for specific classes.  We were hoping to be able to announce that along with an announcement that we’d locked in a location, but, by Thanksgiving, you’ll see the Gift Certificates announced, either way.

Never fear, don’t despair!  A good friend of ours likes to say, “95% is only half-way there!”  To be honest, we never really appreciated the truth of this, until the last few weeks…  but we’re not discouraged – only all the more determined to make this happen!

Keep making stuff. Take care of people, play nice and clean up after yourselves.

Yes, folks, our first major grant just came in!  We’d been asked to attend an event out at the Umbrella Community Arts Center in Concord (which some of us remember as The Emerson Umbrella from back in the ’80s, an effort by several “hippie artists” that was, for us, an inspiration for what a community can achieve in the arts!), by the people at Mass Development, and we were told it was good news, but they couldn’t tell us how good.

Well, it was the best.

We were awarded the full amount of our proposal – $56,000 – to “… secure and buildout a space…  to establish a facility for the Brickyard Collaborative, including providing financial stability strengthening our position negotiating with potential landlords, site design and buildout.”  This program is aimed squarely at efforts in “Gateway Cities” to start makerspaces and co-working spaces, and we hit a bullseye.

This is the Mass Development Collaborative Workspace program, the same one that we launched a Patronicity campaign for this summer with matching donations and were able to leverage those, along with the donated work and equipment we already own, to meet their 50/50 matching requirement.  That is to say, this was all possible because or your support.

We’ve been spending the last month or so planning out our next steps, and thanks to this grant, it’s time to put those into action.  As soon as we get the contracts and information on accessing the funds, we’ll be signing a lease on a space we’ve been working on, and then the fun starts.  Stay tuned, it’s going to be a great ride!

Thanks again for your support!

Ted

Keep making stuff. Take care of people, play nice and clean up after yourselves.