Inaugural Mini Maker Faire harnesses DIY spirit

A rusty old jeep turned into a work of art.

Miniature boats built by children to carry coins and stay afloat the longest.

Puppetry. Modern Dance. Music. Live video drones.

There was no limit to the imagination, or to what you could find at the inaugural Mohawk Valley Mini Maker Faire at SUNY Polytechnic Institute in Utica April 16.

“The underlying ethos of the maker movement is to utilize accessible and emerging technologies to empower people to create, innovate, and develop solutions to address individual and social needs and problems. This is also part of our educational mission at SUNY Poly,” explained Mini Maker Faire organizer and SUNY Poly Associate Professor of Humanities Daryl Lee. “So what we want to do is harness the collective knowledge and expertise of our communities and bring people together to show, share, collaborate, and inspire each other.  In doing so, we want to help build a sustainable culture of creators and innovators who can contribute to the social, cultural, and economic revitalization of the Mohawk Valley.”

Celebrating creativity, ingenuity, and diversity of makers throughout the Mohawk Valley region, the first-ever Mini Maker Faire in the area was a community-based collaboration between SUNY Poly  and a range of individual makers and supporting institutions that included Sculpture Space, thINCubator, the Utica Children’s Museum, Utica College, Mohawk Valley Community College, and the Workforce Development Institute.

The common goal of all the organizations and individuals involved is to spread the maker ethos and help to cultivate a sustainable maker culture that can contribute to the continuing revitalization of our communities.

One of the main attractions of the event was the collaborative “UtiCAR” project coordinated by Sculpture Space artists George Hendrickson and Marc-Anthony Polizzi along with Steve Hale of Steve’s Restorations and Hot Rods. Hale is one of the featured artists and artisans of the History Channel’s show American Restoration and together with other Mohawk Valley makers led faire-goers in transforming a rusty 1999 Jeep Cherokee into a work of art.

“One of the things that we’ve learned is that communities that encourage and provide a welcoming environment for the “creative class” are both culturally vibrant and economically vibrant,” says Dr. Lee. “This is because creativity is a driver of new ideas, new opportunities, innovation, and entrepreneurship.  So that’s what we’re trying to help build. The Mohawk Valley Mini Maker Faire is one way to do so, but we hope that this event helps create momentum for other ideas and initiatives, too.”