We need your help
Hello supporters, members, and makers! Those of you who know me may be surprised to learn that I am not good at communicating. Usually the problem is getting me to shut up. Unfortunately there are a few times when that is not the case. One of those times is when I need to write newsletters, and another time is when I need to raise funds. Now you put those two things together, and throw in my ADHD tendency to avoid things I don’t like at all costs, and you have the perfect storm of procrastination. Ironically, when I do write I tend to be verbose and put waaay too many words on a page, since I figure I am funny and everyone likes to listen to me, even if it is with your eyes. You might not find me funny or entertaining, but I certainly do.
I am going to try to be honest with you about where things stand with the Fab Lab, and what I am trying to do for our future. When I started the Fab Lab, it was because I wanted to help people, and be a force for good in our community and the world. I thought the best way to do that would be with a nonprofit, so that is how we did it. Unfortunately that means that I also put myself in the position of needing to ask people for help, which is not something I am super good at, and even more, asking people for money, which I positively suck at. So I am getting it right out there right away so you read this with the right lens. The Fab Lab needs help, and I am asking you for money.
A short History
We have been in our current location for almost nine years. In this location we have grown from 3,000 square feet to our current 8,000 square feet. We have rented this space and have had the best landlord you could ask for, always willing to let us rent another space if it became available, allowing us to change and renovate, adding and subtracting walls, doors, and everything else to make the space work for our members and students. Unfortunately, we have reached the limit of how large we can grow in this space, and the building is currently for sale.
The building may sell soon, or it may sell later, but it is being sold, and with its location and age, I don’t think anyone is buying it to keep it in its current form. When it is sold, there will only be a short time (a year at most) before we need to find a new place to call home. With that in mind, last year we started looking into purchasing our own space, so that we could pave a permanent space and we could really open up the flood gates of our potential.
8,000 square feet may sound huge, but it is really limiting for our Fab Lab. We have entire tool bays of tools and equipment in storage that we can not use due to lack of space. In my original plan, the SMALLEST I wanted to start at was 15,000 square feet, so we are a little more than half the size that I wanted to be when we began. In order to fully function in the way I have always planned, we need more like 30,000 square feet. This allows us all the tool bays, craft space, ventilated areas, classrooms, and other areas to thrive and be everything our community deserves. There are a few things that get in the way of this expansion, and unfortunately it is all coming down to money.
A new Home
We have found what I think is the perfect space for us to call home. We have toured it extensively, negotiated the price, gotten approval from the bank, and are fully set to purchase our own building in a perfect area of Iowa City. Central to a residential area, convenient to food, coffee, and easy to get to with feet, bike, bus or car. We need to act fast in order to get this space, though. We need to purchase it by May of 2025, or I will need to sign a lease with our current space and we won’t have the necessary cushion of time to improve and renovate the new building while still keeping our current space operating.
Purchasing a building is a large undertaking, and is different from buying a house as an individual. There are things that happen differently, and one of those things is the downpayment. To buy commercial space, you NEED at least 20% of the cost as a down payment, and buying a building the size we need is over one meeelion dollars (Insert Dr. Evil voice here). That means that we need $350,000.00 as a downpayment, and we need it in a month or so. I will be honest with you. If we don’t buy this building, we will never find another building like it. The location, the size, the price, and the circumstances for the Fab Lab are beyond perfect, except for the small detail of a buttload of money up front.
As I said before, I am not good at asking for money. We don’t write a bunch of grants, because I don’t want to rely on grants being there if they suddenly are not there. The last few months have laid proof to that idea. We have had grants in the past, usually to purchase new equipment or run a specific program, but the Fab Lab has always operated on the programming we run and on our memberships. The limit has always been the space we have, not the ideas or the potential of the Fab Lab. So now I am asking for money, and hoping that enough of the Creative Corridor sees my message, sees what the Fab Lab offers, and agrees that it is worth supporting to get us into our new building.
$350,000.00 sounds like a lot of money, and it is. Of course it is. I think of it as three and a half CyberTrucks, but without the look of a dumpster fire. The saying ‘many hands make light work’ applies to many things. If I knew that I could ask 3,500 people for $100 and get it, we would be done. If I could get 35,000 to give me $10, we would be golden. Iowa City has 75,000 residents. If I could get $10 from half of Iowa City, the building would be ours. But I know I won’t get 3000 people to read this. I have heard NPR say if they could get everyone who listened to give them $5 once, they would never need funding drives. What the Fab Lab needs for this to work is a little support from a lot of people, and a lot of support from a few. We also need it in a small amount of time. While we have been looking at and vetting this site since around November of last year, we are now at the end game. There is no more time for me to hesitate.
What does the new building look like?
The building itself is 39,000 square feet. There are some tenants already, so we will have access to 24,000 square feet at the beginning. Beyond the size, our new building will have several advantages to our current home. It has a main floor, a basement level, and a small (for the building) second floor. It has lots of parking. It is sprawling and awesome.
Youth Center
The biggest change will be The STEAM Learning Center. The STEAM Learning Center is a youth-centered Fab Lab. This year round center will have education in STEM and art programming every day of the year. Many of you have heard of the Fab Lab due to our popular summer camps, which over the last decade have educated and entertained over 1000 kids in the Creative Corridor. I create all of the camps from scratch, and there is no bought or canned curriculum. I have always wanted to expand the camps to have an after school program, weekend kid oriented classes, winter break and spring break camps, and more. With the STEAM Learning Center, we will be able to do all of it.
Our design team has created a center with a large Design Lab space, where teens ages 13 to 18 can go to chill out, create awesome art and science, learn, build, and grow. The design lab will integrate a coffee shop, science lab, and lounging basement room into one, with a private patio, study areas, funky furniture, and high tech tools at their fingertips. Beyond the Design Lab there will be a classroom, computer lab, ceramics area, woodworking, laser, 3D printing, crafting, and more. All completely accessible by teen members on their own and kids as young as seven years old involved in our programs and classes. This space will be separate from the Main Fab Lab, and be a youth-led area that does not exist elsewhere in Iowa City.
The STEAM Learning Center will have additional programming for every young person in Iowa City, with weeknight and weekend free or low cost activities, regular classes and hangouts, clubs, team activities, and more. We will also expand our summer camps, introduce after school programs, host robotics teams, have youth art shows, and more.
Public accessibility
The Main Fab Lab will also be getting an upgrade. From 8000 square feet to a new area of 22,000 square feet (everything left over from the Learning Center) we will be creating a bunch of new areas, expanding others, and offering more to the maker and artist communities. We will have publicly accessible classrooms, meeting rooms, and office spaces for drop ins, as well as hosting art shows, tech sales days, and partnering with other non-profits in our area to create synergies and new possibilities for everyone. We plan on permanently hosting the Antelope Lending Library and giving them space to run their operations, book sales, and events, and hosting a large group of other nonprofits that need occasional space or a place to fulfill their missions.
Member Area
Once you are past the classrooms and publicly accessible areas, you will find an expanded Fab Lab, with both familiar and new areas. Our woodshop will expand, and with it we will have sections for general woodworking, advanced woodworking, hand tools/oldschool working, and a separate sanding area. We will also have painting and staining booths, and a large staining room, with proper ventilation to tackle the largest projects.
Our laser area will expand, with a new Fiber Laser able to etch, emboss, and cut through metals! Our CNC machine will be a water cooled spindle type, and we will also be getting a plasma CNC for metalworking. We are talking about a waterjet cutter, but that will be waiting a while while we build out.
Ceramics will be getting a second kiln and a larger area with more wheels, more space, and a slab roller, possibly a pug mill as well. Porcelain working area is also possible, but not definite yet.
We are working on getting at least one longarm quilting machine, as well as expanding the area for fiber arts. Our embroidery area will have its own location, and we will expand selection of leatherworking, paper crafts, and silkscreening.
We have all the equipment we need for a photo development darkroom, so we will be adding darkroom to the list, as well as a dedicated jewelry space, stained glass room, and resin/plastic working area.
Metalworking (sheet metal, CNC, shaping, etc) will have its own section as well, and we will be expanding into welding and plasma cutting as soon as we can. This will depend on the ventilation needs which we have not assessed in the new building yet.
Electronics and robotics will have an expanded area, as well as expanded selection of 3D printing options (multi color, resin, and extra large prints), with a dedicated space for cosplay and costume arts, a virtual reality suite with a gaming console beefy enough for game design and development, and experimental hepatic feedback equipment.
Added extras that we are considering (for the future) would include an outdoor area large enough for car repair and painting, a small forge, and possibly a glass works. We would also be putting welding in an outbuilding eventually, to keep all the hot metal from the fire-prone wooden building.
As with now, members will be able to access all of our equipment, as well as free (and mandatory) basic and safety training to use the equipment. Regular advanced classes to build on existing techniques or build a specific project will be available to the public, and family friendly as well as adults only (due to dangerous equipment) classes will be plentiful.
Rental spaces
In the current Fab Lab we have Seven private studios and seven community studios, which members use to store their own equipment, work on their own projects, and in some cases run their own businesses through. In the new Fab Lab, we will have even more private studios, as well as studios specifically designed for artists who need good lighting, and more small rental areas, from lockers for personal supplies and equipment to pallet shaped closets. On top of that there will be several ‘chill out’ areas in the members section of the Fab Lab to just hang out in, and a large members’ classroom which can be used for more advanced classes or rented out by members for a large project or special event.
How you can help
There are several ways to help us get into this exciting new space, and create the most dynamic, amazing, and crazy-ass community area in the state. The first and best way is to donate money. Nothing is more important at this moment than getting the down payment. Once that is accomplished, all of this can become a reality. By donating money, you will be providing a solid future for the Iowa City Fab Lab. Our new center will have a wall of donors proudly displayed in the public area, as a thank you to each and every donor. There are several levels of donation for you to choose from.
Donate Money
Donations from $100 to $500 will get your name on our Thank You wall. We will update this wall periodically with new names, in the order the donation happens in.
From $501 to $2,000 we will put your name on a small lasercut gear, and you will be put on the gear wall of donors. The gears increase in size with the amount of the donation.
From $2,001 to $5,000, you get a bigger gear. More visibility, more exclusive.
$5,001 to $10,000 gets you a large gear. People will see the size of your gear and be jealous.
$10,001 to $20,000 and you will get the largest gear on the main wall, and may be able to get something named after you or your company inside the Lab. Like park benches, or small public sculptures, ‘This bandsaw is named in honor of Bandy Sawyer, Who always hated their name.’ That kind of thing.
$20,001 to $50,000 gets to the good stuff. We start naming rooms and bays after you at that point. You also get put on our most exclusive wall area, the Founders’ Wall. The Founders’ Wall is reserved for those who had a significant impact in the Fab Lab’s existence. There are already a list of people lined up for the Founders’ Wall, who have contributed in the past and without whom the Fab Lab would not exist. After the purchase of this building, there will be No More Names Ever put on the founders wall without some sort of HUGE circumstance happening.
$50,001 and above and we will have to talk about what main rooms you would like to name, and what you would like to name them. There is very little that I will not name something, so here is your chance to make a potentially hilarious mark on a building forever.
Giving Money away sounds scary. I want to help, but want something back
Don’t want to straight up donate money? Some people want something tangible for their money. So we have come up with a way that you can support the Fab Lab in it’s move but also benefit. This offer is to people who are currently not members of the Fab Lab, but would like to become one once the Fab Lab is in it’s new location. You can purchase a one year full membership to the Fab Lab.
Full memberships are 24/7 access to everything in the Fab Lab, free (and mandatory) safety and basic training for any equipment and tool bays, and 25% off of all paid classes taught at the Fab Lab. Full memberships cost $100 per month, or $1000 per year. If you purchase a 1 year membership for $1000, it can be held for up to 5 years before cashing it in to start your year of membership. It can also be gifted to any other adult. This is a great way to give to the Fab Lab in our time of need, without having to donate.
350 year memberships and we are done!
A gift for a student at the University, with 24/7 access to anything they need for any class, no matter what their major! It does not matter if it is a break, a summer session, or the middle of the night.
A gift for a loved one! Your wife is always tearing down the kitchen table so she can build furniture? Your dad is constantly creating sawdust in the garage? Your retired engineer husband is driving you frickin’ batty with his constant projects?
A great way of giving yourself all the tools and space, without having to buy them all yourself!
Ending message
At the end of the day, people will do what they want to do. I have spent the last decade of my life (and more) building the Fab Lab. I told you I would be honest, so I will be honest. We have gotten amazing help from so very many people over the years. I have met great friends, a few enemies, and hundreds of hilarious, complex, interesting, and brilliant people. I have also sacrificed a lot personally to fulfill my dream. I did not pay myself a salary for a decade. Literally I made Zero Dollars in income, and my wife (an angel among us) has supported our family (and the Fab Lab) for all but the last year completely alone.
Let me say that again in its own paragraph. I have not had any other job. I have not worked other places. I paid myself ZERO to build my dream, missing my children’s birthday parties and events at times when they were younger. Missing family vacations. Giving away time that I can never, NEVER get back, because this is my dream, my passion, and my mission in life. I have worked an average of 60 hours a week, every week, for a decade. For no pay. So if you are not sure if you think the Fab Lab will make it in a new building, think for a second about yourself. I don’t care how much you love your job. I don’t care how much passion you have for what you do. I challenge anyone in the world to match the passion and sacrifice my Family and I have personally made for my dream.
So now I am asking for your help. I don’t want any ‘good luck’s. I got a box full. You can keep your thoughts and prayers, they don’t help. I need you to help the Fab Lab secure it’s future, because without this building, I don’t know what the future holds. I have put in my decade of pushing a boulder up a hill. If it can’t start rolling because the community I love enough for this kind of sacrifice doesn’t help, then I will probably stop pushing after a while longer. You want this thing I have built? Show me. I have already shown you what it means to me.
Two final thoughts, because I am being honest and feel like addressing a few things that I get told a lot. Yes, we could write grants. I. don’t. Want. To. This is a community center. If the community doesn’t value it, then they don’t deserve it. Getting $300,000 from a mysterious funding source is NOT the point of what I am doing. You want it? Fucking work for it. Prove you want it. Support it yourself, or you don’t want it enough.
The other thing I have been told is that the city or county can help. So far, in the last decade, the city and county have not given us any money ever. We have asked. Many times. They have said they would several times. And they never have. Again, that is not the point. The city, county, and state are there to support public programs, and libraries, parks, working sewers, etc are what civilization is built on, and are paid for with public funds. If you want the city or county to fund a Fab Lab, then tell them and they can build one. But it won’t be like mine. I need YOUR support, not theirs. This is a community center, not a civic center.
That is my honest message to you, my friends. We have a month to pull off a miracle. I have already performed mine over the last decade. It is your turn to show us how much you want it.
-Kirk
