Boosting the Vancouver Community Lab!

Overview:

The Vancouver Community Laboratory is a collectively run woodworking and metalworking workshop for artists, designers, makers, inventors and builders in the community. We provide low cost access to the tools of creation and the much needed cultural space in which to create. Our goal is to foster a vibrant, dynamic community which has the tools to invent its own living culture. In the past year and a half our workshop grew to directly support more than 35 members as well as a number of our sister organizations on Vancouver's east side. Some of those organizations have submitted letters of support on our behalf to City Council, which you can read on our website. We have also provided space and equipment to numerous individuals for short term projects and classes.

Our Idea: While we have succeeded in becoming a resource for those in our community who need space to work in, we still lack some of the tools and services that would allow us to become a hub for arts, culture, entrepreneurship and design-for-good in our city. The funds provided through the Aviva Community Grant would be channeled directly into purchasing tools, hiring a full-time workshop manager, and improving the working environment.

Goals:

• Purchase a planer, long-belt sander and a CNC router table to round out the woodworking equipment.
• Purchase a lathe, knee mill, MIG welding rig and casting foundry to round out the metalworking equipment.
• Hire a full time shop manager to ensure consumables are replenished, organize build nights and make the workshop as accessible to the community as possible.
• Install a keyless entry system to improve workshop security, build improved materials storage and install more leveled work surfaces.

With these improvements in place, we would be able to drastically increase the number of individuals and groups in Vancouver's cultural community that we support, reducing the demand for private studios and simultaneously bringing together creators from diverse backgrounds to collaborate in new ways.

Thank you for your interest and, I hope, your support.
You can learn more about us on our website at: http://www.vancommunitylab.com/