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Over $4000, and 6 Patrons in 4 days! 

Update: We’ve had an incredible response in a short few days!  We’re already well on our way to making our $20,000 goal!  Our program clearly resonates in this community and beyond!

Want to help us make it?  Love what we’re doing?  Want to support what we’ve done?  Easy! Go here:
https://www.patronicity.com/project/boatbuilding_at_the_brickyard#!/

Since the onslaught of COVID, we’ve tried to keep from asking people for help.  Instead, we’ve rolled up our sleeves, pitched in and tried to make do with what we had.  Our results speak for themselves. Now, we need your help.

Our goal is to expand and solidify our boat building program into a regular event that we can share with the Lynn community and beyond.  To do that we’re applying to the MassDevelopment Collaborative Workspace program for funding.

The grant requires 100% in matching funds.  That’s where you come in.  We just launched a Patronicity campaign, running from now until June 3 – coming up fast – with a goal of $20,000.  With that funding, we can write a proposal for a $40,000 project, acquiring tools and materials to make boatbuilding a “thing” in Lynn.

As you can read in the project description, this program has been at the core of our mission since day one.  It’s an incredibly powerful educational tool, with a proven track record.  Read more on our partner’s site, Community Boatbuildiing.

Thank you for your well-wishes and your support over the 5 years we’ve been growing, and I hope you can help us make the next step!

Ted Dillard
Director,
The Brickyard Collaborative

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

We have SO MANY THINGS to tell you!

But first, did you see this story in the Lynn Daily Item?

Yeah, if you remember back to our very beginning, this has been a dream – it came together through the combined efforts of several dedicated people and committed organizations in the city…  more about that later, but we wanted to give these kids the shout they deserved.

But here’s some more good news: We’re relaunching our classes! 

Thanks to the efforts of Sally Jacobson, mixed media artist and photographer Stefanie Timmermann, we’re welcoming two workshops on Cyanotype printing to our new home on Western Ave!  To see our schedule and get details, go to the workshop pages on The Brickyard Collaborative website: https://thebrickyard.org/events-workshops-classes/

Here’s a tease for each of the two classes:

This historical process first used by Anna Atkins in 1843 involves contact printing (subject is sitting on top of the prepared paper) objects and/or negatives onto light sensitive paper exposed to ultraviolet (UV) light.

In the workshop you will learn the basic process of cyanotype printing. You will leave class with enough experience and knowledge for you to begin a personal journey into this simple non-toxic art making process that can easily be done at home.

We will prepare our paper in a semi-darkened space, expose prints in the sun (a UV light source) and process them in water. The sun and weather will determine the intensity and sort of cyanotypes we produce that day. In case of inclement weather, we will alternatively use UV light boxes indoors.

By the time you leave you’ll have 4 gorgeous 8”x10” blueprints and the skills to create more at home.

Interested?  Tickets and details here, on Eventbrite

Experimental Cyanotype Printing: We will give a brief overview of the basic cyanotype process and then share some experimentation ideas such as wet-cyanotype, bleaching, and toning. After that you can dive in with our guidance. Bring your curiosity, ideas, and questions!!!

Materials: Emulsion, basic tools, standard watercolor paper, and some alternative substrates will be provided. Please bring other small natural materials to try and possibly to share such as natural fiber fabrics – cotton, silk, bamboo, wool, as well as wood, smooth stones etc. Please wear closed-toe shoes and old clothes. Bring an apron and a snack.

Tickets and details here: Eventbrite

Spring is here and it’s time to get out, stretch your legs, learn new things and MAKE STUFF!

You’re invited to join us at The Brickyard Collaborative for a Vision Lynn information session! Vision Lynn Office Hours (English and Spanish) Tomorrow, Tuesday, February 7 – 1-4pm at our Makerspace at 760 Western Avenue.  Park in the CarQuest lot and come to our entrance at the rear of the building. The Vision Lynn team will be in the Brickyard Collaborative space  looking for input on the City’s first-ever comprehensive plan. We’re digging deep into identifying what “good” development would look like in Lynn. As part of that work, we’re using two areas–Gearworks and Market Square–to test our ideas. Come stop by and chat. The information will be the same as shared at the Vision Lynn Open House on Saturday, February 4 from 10:30-12:30pm at the Lynn Senior Center (37 Friend Street). More info: www.lynnincommon.com/vision-lynn Been curious about The Brickyard Collaborative’s new shop?  Informal “open house” tours will be available as well…  See you there!

 

So wow. It’s been 5 years.

5 years since that first conversation at the coffee shop. 5 years since we had an idea, but nothing beyond that. 5 years since we incorporated, and applied for our first grant, and had our first workshops.

Where are we now? We have a 10,000 square foot facility, and 65 members. We have a full woodshop, metal shop, electronics, rapid prototyping, textile, digital printing and hot works shops. We are where we wanted to be 5 years ago, we are finally at the place where we can do what we’ve wanted to do.

What does that mean? That means teaching kids how to build boats with Community Boatbuilding, Lynn Tech, LEAP and Kayak and Sail Lynn. That means working with Bike to the Sea. That means partnerships with RAW Arts, Lynn Museum, GALA, Lynn Cultural Council, St Mary’s, KIPP, The Food Project and a host of others in this city.

When we signed the lease for our new space last March and ran the numbers, we projected about a year, maybe a year and a half before we filled the space. We’ve filled it in two months.

What does this say? This tells us we fill a need – a huge need for people to have access to the tools, the space, the knowledge and the community that a makerspace brings.

Over this five years we’ve grown from just an idea, to a small, 2500 square feet shop, moved to 4500 square feet to now 10,000 square feet… in the course of that we’ve made over 4000 pieces of PPE for the city of Lynn during the COVID crisis. We stored and distributed 6 tons of food to those in need in the city during COVD. We’ve created a free WIFI network in the downtown Lynn neighborhood and helped retail businesses use this to help recover from COVID. We got 8 pallets of hand sanitizer stations and equipment out to the community, including into the Mayor’s Office itself. We’ve helped launch a handful of small side gigs into actual businesses, and opened up tools and technology to over a hundred people in the community – members and non-members alike.

Five years ago we were at a hearing for the CDBG program – the Community Development Block Grant – a program that distributes Federal funds through local citizen’s committees, and at the hearing the chair of the Lynn committee said to us, “Who are you? You have nothing!” Well, this is who we are. And guess what? With what they called “nothing”, we changed this city, and this community.

Did we do it alone? Of course not, nobody does all this by themselves. We have been blessed by, and deeply appreciate all the help and support we’ve had in this town, the teams of volunteers in our member community and every week we see more.

And we’re only getting started.

Here’s to 2023, health, happiness, growth and creating amazing stuff for the coming year!

 

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