Submitted by The Hive
The Hive, Bellingham’s newest maker space, will celebrate its opening with an alley party on Sunday May 17 from 2:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. featuring music from The Loofahs, Karma Taxi and Dana Hubanks, food from Kurly’s Fries, on-site t-shirt printing courtesy of Red Boots Design, a membership raffle and other festivities throughout the afternoon.
The Hive is a member-based community business that offers woodworking tools, sewing machines and space to work on a wide array of crafts, repairs and do-it-yourself projects. Its doors officially opened to the public earlier this spring after a year of building grassroots support for the project through outreach at summer festivals and two crowd-funding campaigns as well as connecting with members of the maker and DIY community in Bellingham.
Upon successful completion of the Tilt funding campaign in November, which raised almost $20,000, Hive founder Kendall Dodd turned her attention to establishing the makerspace in a cozy warehouse downtown in the alley behind the Upfront Theater and 3 Oms Yoga.
In keeping with the bootstrapping ethos of The Hive, the space was set up with hours of generous help from friends and family and furnished with work surfaces from the ReStore and University of Washington surplus as well as tools donated from near and far.
“I love that every part of The Hive has a story and a connection to our community,” says Dodd. “Makerspaces are a part of the newly emerging shared economy, and I believe they should represent that by taking advantage of the resources already present here in our area.”
Once people become members, the tools and space at The Hive are accessible in one of two ways—using a punch card to pay by the visit (like most yoga studios) or with a flat monthly fee (like most gyms).
The Hive also offers an activity schedule with everything from casual meet-ups to project-based maker events to formal classes for members who want to learn new skills or just want a little bit of guidance about where to start.
In addition to celebrating its opening with the party on the 17th, The Hive is offering free annual membership to everyone who makes their first visit to The Hive in May. Whether that means attending a class or activity, or just coming in to work on a project, if someone sets foot into the space for the first time before the end of the month, her or his membership fee will be waived. “It’s all a part of The Hive’s mission to make it as easy as possible for people to get to work on whatever project or idea is at the top of their list.”
For more information about The Hive, please visit www.makedolearn.org.
