- Learn - Make - Connect -
VHS-to-Digital Converter Set Up in Computer Lab
Want to preserve your VHS before the tape falls off the reals? Come in and use the VHS digitizer that’s now set up in the main room computer lab! It’s free for members, and instructions are provided.
Another Way to Support the Makerspace
The “Donations” page of the Cruces Creatives website now supports recurring donations, Patreon-style! If you like what Cruces Creatives is doing, you can help with $1 a month, $5 a quarter, whatever feels right for you.
Everything helps. Especially while Cruces Creatives is growing the programs and memberships that will provide a stable financial base, your contributions can really make a difference for your community makerspace! To set up a recurring donation, visit https://crucescreatives.org/donate-money/.
Art Ramble/MESA Art Show this Friday!
This month’s first Friday Art Ramble is a big one! Thanks to partnerships with the MESA Project, the University Art Museum at New Mexico State University, and Friends of the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks, as well as generous funding from ArtPlace America, Cruces Creatives is hosting a multifaceted, interactive, themed art show on the intersections between agriculture and the environment. The evening features:
Wood Shop Power Automation Coming September 6
To help keep people safe in the wood shop, Cruces Creatives uses a lock-out system on tools that should only be operated by people with appropriate training. Until this Friday, you would have noticed padlocks on the power cords to tools like the table saw, which the back monitors unlock only for people with appropriate safety training. On many tools, the padlocks are going away—but the safety isn’t.
As part of a transition to a more efficient card-swipe system—in which people with safety training on a tool can swipe their Cruces Creatives RFID card to unlock that tool—IT Officer Jeff Moore has created an electronic system that back monitors can use to control power to several wood shop tools. Instead of going to a computer, checking the safety training status of people wanting to use a tool, finding the appropriate key, and then unlocking a tool padlock, back monitors can now use a tablet or a specially configured phone to confirm the safety trainings of everyone in the wood shop and electronically lock or unlock tools. After this new system for electronically controlling tool access is successfully piloted, we can move toward a card-swipe system, in which safety training is confirmed electronically and the safety locking/unlocking system for tools is automated.
Cruces Creatives Job Shop Officially Launching!
A makerspace offers the tools, training, and community to make practically anything—including projects for hire! That’s where the Cruces Creatives Job Shop comes in.
The Job Shop--as part of Cruces Creatives’ missions to promote economic development, advance science and technology, and promote practical education in Doña Ana County--connects individuals or organizations who want a project made with members of the Cruces Creatives team who can make the project happen.
From a soft opening with pilot projects that started in November 2018, the Job Shop has already grown to a major program, with multiple projects worth over $55,000 completed so far. This work helps local organizations and individuals make their visions reality, all while enhancing the local economy, providing internship and education opportunities for a 21st century workforce, and serving as a major source of support for Cruces Creatives and all its charitable missions.
With the success of the soft-opening projects, the Job Shop is leaving the pilot phase and officially launching!
To learn more or start a project, visit http://www.crucescreatives.org/Job-Shop. Also, if you know someone who has a project that could use some additional skills, help spread the word!
Enclosure unit for Electronic Caregiver's virtual nursing assistant, Addison Care (TM)
Interactive children's museum exhibits for Ngage New Mexico
Drop in anytime tomorrow between 3pm and 6pm, Tuesday Aug 27th, to experience letterpressing with Power & Light Press, a traveling letterpress truck who's in town for one day only!
Hope to see you there!
-CC Team
Super Special First First on September 6
This upcoming first Friday will be a mighty special one! It’s an interactive art show on the intersections between agriculture and the environment, featuring
The event is hosted in partnership among Cruces Creatives, the Meetings for Environmentally Sustainable Agriculture (MESA) Project, Friends of the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks, and the Art Gallery at New Mexico State University. The evening is funded through a grant from ArtPlace America.
To RSVP, visit http://www.crucescreatives.org/event-3477210.
Paint-by-Numbers Community Mural Update
From 711 votes, we have a design choice for the paint-by-numbers community mural! It’s the bright, stylized design by Eugenia “AO” Carmona, and the organizing team is in the process of scheduling free workshops/painting parties for the mural in September.
More Mural!
We’ve got all sorts of wonderful murals on the outside of Cruces Creatives now—but what about the inside? Well, as part of the MESA Art Show on the intersections between agriculture and the environment, Cruces Creatives will be getting a pattern of prominent local crops as break room mural, designed by artist Victor Beckman.
Vacuum Press for 2D Art
Thanks to a donation from Reviver Printing, Cruces Creatives now has a 4’ x 6’ vacuum press! This tool allows mounting, laminating, and texturing for 2D artworks, and it’ll be a great complement to the 2D art classes at the makerspace. Watch the event calendar for training in how to use this tool.
Special Announcement:
Educational Programs for 4th-5th Graders and 3rd-6th Graders
Later this month, two exciting educational programs are launching at Cruces Creatives! STEAM Team Saturdays STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, mathematics) Team Saturdays offer project-based, hands-on learning for 4th and 5th grade LCPS students over the course of the 2019-2020 school year. In alignment with and enhancement of common core learning standards, topics for the program include coding, electronics, sculpting, measuring, working in wood, using a drill, learning to iron, conductivity, using vinyl, hydraulics, and much more. This program is funded by the New Mexico STEM Outreach Center, and it’s free to 4th and 5th graders attending the Las Cruces Public School system. For more information or to register, visit http://www.crucescreatives.org/event-3511978 Homeschool Science and History Classes For 3rd-6th grade homeschool students, the upcoming Homeschool Science and History Classes will offer hands-on projects and learning! For participants who are not members of the makerspace, the program is by donation; for makerspace members, the program is free. For more information or to register for the science classes, visit http://www.crucescreatives.org/event-3511282; for history classes, visit http://www.crucescreatives.org/event-3511300.
Later this month, two exciting educational programs are launching at Cruces Creatives!
STEAM Team Saturdays
STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, mathematics) Team Saturdays offer project-based, hands-on learning for 4th and 5th grade LCPS students over the course of the 2019-2020 school year. In alignment with and enhancement of common core learning standards, topics for the program include coding, electronics, sculpting, measuring, working in wood, using a drill, learning to iron, conductivity, using vinyl, hydraulics, and much more. This program is funded by the New Mexico STEM Outreach Center, and it’s free to 4th and 5th graders attending the Las Cruces Public School system. For more information or to register, visit http://www.crucescreatives.org/event-3511978
Homeschool Science and History Classes
For 3rd-6th grade homeschool students, the upcoming Homeschool Science and History Classes will offer hands-on projects and learning! For participants who are not members of the makerspace, the program is by donation; for makerspace members, the program is free. For more information or to register for the science classes, visit http://www.crucescreatives.org/event-3511282; for history classes, visit http://www.crucescreatives.org/event-3511300.
STEAM Saturdays Launching!
Starting on August 31, the Kids' Classroom is going to be bustling each Saturday morning with STEAM education projects: conductive, interactive ajebrijes; hydraulic arms and mazes; Rube Goldberg machines, and powered flying machines!
The participants, twelve 4th and 5th graders selected by the New Mexico STEM Outreach Center, will be learning through hands-on projects every Saturday through the 2019/2020 school year.
Cruces Creatives Survey
Cruces Creatives is now just over one year old! If you haven’t already, please consider sharing your input through a quick survey to shape the next years’ growth! To fill out the survey, visit https://forms.gle/pNAx3nJidfoJKtqNA.
Spring into Gear with The Hub Community Bike Shop
As the weather warms up and you bring out the bikes, keep The Hub Community Bike Shop in mind. Every Thursday and Saturday morning, volunteers at The Hub (located in the wood shop / bike shop at Cruces Creatives) can help you fix up your bike and get it ready to ride. Plus, in addition to bike repair, The Hub offers bike safety training, bike safety equipment for kids, a bike donation site, and bikes for sale.
Applications for Cruces Kids Can Now Open
Kids aged 6-17 are invited to create a business plan, develop a product or service and then open for business at the Cruces Kids Can Downtown Marketplace! The program includes a workshop where kids learn about startup costs, pricing, marketing, profit; get product feedback; and practice mock sales. To participate, budding entrepreneurs should register by April 6 at this link.
