cRUCES
CREATIVES

News 

STEM Education Programs Launching This Fall

Thanks to funding from the NM STEM Outreach Center, Cruces Creatives will be launching or expanding five educational programs this fall! Programs include after-school learning, Saturday programs at Cruces Creatives, project-based learning for children and their parents/guardians, expanded mentoring through the HAZLO Program, and teacher training on how makerspace tools and resources can be integrated into curricula. Look for full details towards the end of the summer.

Anniversary Survey

One June 26, Cruces Creatives will be one year old! We’d love to hear how that first year has been for you and how the next years can be even better. You can share your feedback through a survey here; the information you provide will shape growth for the next years and provide data that can help bring in grant funding! To make sure your answers can be counted, please complete the survey by June 30.

News  Wood Shop Fully Operational The HVAC renovations to the wood shop are finished, so the wood shop is now fully operational! With the HVAC renovations, all of the tools in the wood shop can be used in indoors: the table saws, CNC machines, milling machine, band saws, scroll saws, sliding compound miter saw, sanders, drill presses, lathes, hand tools, planer, jointer, and more. Let’s see what we can create! Robotic Arm for Education Thanks to On the Go Heating & Cooling, who completed the HVAC renovations in the wood shop, Cruces Creatives now has a multi-axis SCARA robotic arm, developed especially for education! After some setup, the SCARA arm will be a robust job training and creative tool.

News 

One-Year Anniversary Celebration

Come to the makerspace on Saturday, June 29, to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the Cruces Creatives grand opening! There will be food and music; arts, crafts, and surplus tools/equipment for sale; and the chance to come together and celebrate everything we’ve accomplished in just one year!  

Founding Membership Discounts Extended through June 29

Cruces Creatives has officially passed 100 active members—woohoo!—but you can still lock in the discounted founding membership rate of $45 $35/month if you register as a member on or before the one-year anniversary celebration on June 29, 2019.

News 

Interactive Children’s Museum Exhibits Premiering this Saturday

Earlier this year, Cruces Creatives and Ngage New Mexico partnered to design and make traveling children's museum exhibits for kids to explore, play, and learn with. The exhibits are now finished and ready to use, so this Saturday, families with kids ages 1-8 are invited to come try the interactive, educational exhibits! For more information, visithttp://www.crucescreatives.org/event-3387281.

Wood Shop Ventilation and HVAC Work Starting May 20 

The eagerly anticipated upgrades to the ventilation and HVAC systems in the wood shop start May 20! While the work is being completed (at least May 20 to May 25), expect full or partial closures of the wood shop. When the upgrades are finished, the wood shop will be fully operational, and we’ll be able to use every tool in the wood shop indoors!

Mural Art at the Makerspace

Thanks to SABA, Arturo Uribe, the Barricade Culture Shop, and dozens of volunteer artists from around the country, Cruces Creatives is getting splashes of color and imagery through the “Illegal (?) Art Show”! Through at least May 25, the work will change and grow with feedback from the makerspace community. Come by to see the progress!

News 

Writers Workshop Starting

Starting on May 18, there will be a free writers workshop every first and third Saturday at Cruces Creatives! For more information or to register, visit http://www.crucescreatives.org/event-3374763.

Call for Music

Sometimes, classes and events at the makerspace can be even better with music! To bring music into the makerspace, respect public performance rights, and promote local songwriting and musicianship, Cruces Creatives is inviting submissions of original music. For more information, visit http://www.crucescreatives.org/event-3398260. All genres are welcome!

$25,000 Endowment Established for Cruces Creatives!

Thanks to the generosity of Beverly Denney, who made a donation in memory of her late partner Ron Tipton, Cruces Creatives now has a $25,000 endowment through the Community Foundation of Southern New Mexico! This endowment will be an important source of operating funds and a foundation for future growth—it’s a huge boost to our community makerspace!

To celebrate the new opportunities offered by the endowment and to thank Beverly for her tremendous generosity, all makerspace members and volunteers are invited to a light brunch with Beverly at Cruces Creatives 10:00 a.m. to noon. If you can attend, please RSVP at http://www.crucescreatives.org/event-3316977.

Call for Summer Camp Instructors

Do you have an idea for using the resources at Cruces Creatives to help children develop their skills in science, technology, engineering, art, or mathematics (STEAM)? If so, email Pat DeSimio atp.desimio@crucescreatives.org--Cruces Creatives is planning a variety of youth summer camps, and you could be part of the team putting together fun and educational programs for kids in Las Cruces.

Mini Maker Faire in Albuquerque April 6 and 7

On the first weekend in April, there’s a Maker Faire in Albuquerque! It’s like a science fair, but focused on creating things—or, in the words of the organizers, “the Greatest Show (& Tell) on Earth - a family-friendly showcase of invention, creativity, and resourcefulness.” For more information or to sign up, visit https://albuquerque.makerfaire.com/.

A/V Room Phase 1 Renovations Completed

Volunteers Micah Pearson and Paul Larkin have completed the first phase of renovations for the A/V Room! The improvements included building work stations on casters to make the space fully configurable, installing foam panels over Lohman-facing windows to reduce street noise and control light, creating an elegant storage system for the equipment, and painting the walls and parts of the ceiling black for better lighting control.

Project: Traveling Exhibit for Children's Science Museum

In partnership with Ngage New Mexico, Cruces Creatives is developing interactive exhibits for a mobile children’s museum. At several stages in the process, community members will be invited to help build the exhibits using makerspace tools. For more information, click here and here.   

Cruces Creatives Voted Most Loved Arts Center

Users of the parenting site HulaFrog voted Cruces Creatives the most loved arts center in Las Cruces! Thanks, everybody in the community who makes Cruces Creatives such a special place. For more information, click here. 

Laser Cutter Ventilation Installed

A ventilation system for the laser cutter is installed, so this powerful tool is now fully operational! In the coming weeks and months, look for training classes on how to use the laser cutter safely and effectively. Special thanks, too, to Michael Harris and Evan Salazar of Visgence, Inc., who have indefinitely loaned the laser cutter to the community.

Expanded Hours Starting Sunday, Feb. 17

Thanks to our volunteer monitors, Cruces Creatives will be open on Sundays from 1:00-5:00 p.m. starting on February 17! Come on in and enjoy the additional time to learn, make, and connect.

Help Shape Las Cruces

Las Cruces Parks & Recreation  is looking for input to help shape the future of parks and recreation programming in Las Cruces. Take a short, 5-minute survey to make your voice heard: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/LasCrucesParks. For more information about the plan, visit http://lascrucesparksplan.halff.com/. 

 

HAZLO Foundation Mentor Training 

The HAZLO (Make It/Do It) Program is starting this month! In this program, students work with community mentors to complete hands-on projects that the students propose. A training workshop for program mentors will be held on Feb. 16, and if you would be interested in helping students build life and academic skills through real-world projects, you’re invited to attend. To register, visit http://www.crucescreatives.org/event-3261106. As preparation for the workshop, please complete a mentor application form, available at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdZh7lo58Z3AI0bN7M15DjFfD1O_9J9ks_pVhfLFzBkJC9k-A/viewform.

Sunday Hours Starting Feb. 17

Thanks to monitors Christopher Consaul, Matt Hawn, Sara Jones, John Miller, and Robyn Tierney, Cruces Creatives will be open from 1:00-5:00 p.m. on Sundays starting Feb. 17! 

Monitor Training

Want to be part of the all-volunteer team that runs Cruces Creatives? Take training to be a monitor and help support the day-to-day work of creativity in the makerspace—also, the more monitors Cruces Creatives has, the more hours the makerspace can be open! The next training for back monitors is on Feb. 9 (http://www.crucescreatives.org/event-3176254), and the next training for front monitors is on Feb. 16 (http://www.crucescreatives.org/event-3176265). Monitors who volunteer three or more hours a week are thanked with a free membership to enjoy the makerspace they help create

Pursue a Grant with Cruces Creatives Do you have an idea to do good stuff using the makerspace? There might be grant funding for that idea! If you’re interested in leading a Cruces Creatives project for work in education, the arts, economic development, the environment, and/or science and technology, complete a grant project proposal form at https://goo.gl/forms/x2sxajgNYpXatwlp1, and a member of the grantwriting team will contact you through the email address you provide in the form. Let’what we can make possible together! Teach a Class or Workshop                     Do you have an idea for a class or workshop you’d like to lead at the makerspace? You can propose it at https://crucescreatives.org/Propose-a-Program.