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Springdale, Arkansas (home to Teslar’s headquarters) has received an exciting new, albeit temporary, addition to the community—an Innovation Hub. The hub is a pop-up makerspace that offers opportunities for adults and children of the community to attend free classes and workshops that offer tools and training to spark innovation and creativity and improve future careers.
The hub offers a wide range of classes and topics. They have classes in traditional artistic mediums such as ceramics and photography, as well as more technology-based arts like 3D printing, graphic design, screen printing, virtual reality and drones, and laser cutting. There are also workshops in marketing, business networking, entrepreneurship, as well as hard skills like carpentry. Classes are uploaded to their website and change weekly.
The Arkansas Innovation Hub is a non-profit group based in Little Rock, AR designed to “inspire innovators and entrepreneurs to expand the range of educational and economic opportunities to communities.”1
The makerspace has translators and has printed all materials in both Spanish and Marshallese in an effort to help break cultural and language barriers and offer inclusivity to anyone in the community, but also many local business professionals are attending classes as a means of professional development. The facilitators are hoping to inspire the community with culture and innovation.
The makerspace is provided through a grant from the Walton Family Foundation and will determine if they can sustain a permanent makerspace in Springdale at the conclusion of the hub. Springdale residents who hope to see a permanent makerspace are being encouraged to facilitate town hall meetings or establish an advisory council. As of now, the pop-up will only last through November 23rd.
We’d love to hear your thoughts on establishing a permanent makerspace in the Springdale/Northwest Arkansas community in the comments below!
You can visit their website for the most up-to-date information regarding the hub’s activities and class schedule.
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