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courtesy of the magic house
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courtesy of the magic house
Kids can learn to launch everything from rockets to small businesses in The Magic House @ MADE, which opened to the public today. The Magic House’s first permanent satellite location, at 5127 Delmar, isn’t a museum. Rather, it’s an interactive space where kids can get hands-on experience working with low-tech looms, high-tech laser cutters, and much more.
The MADE acronym defines the facility’s four sections, a Makers’ Space, Artists’ Studio, Designers’ Lab, and Entrepreneurs’ Marketplace, with each area offering several activities and design challenges to spark kids’ creativity.
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Among other tools, the art area features potter’s wheels, a screen printer, and a colorful display of markers and other supplies that’s a work of art on its own. The makers’ space, sponsored by the Ameren Corporation Charitable Trust, showcases sewing machines, a laser cutter, and an area where visitors can apply basic coding skills by using special markers to design a path for a tiny Ozobot robot. The Ozobot can change speed, direction, or even spin or zigzag according to the color codes in its path. The design lab offers tools to create stop-motion videos and features a video game design station created by St. Louis–based game developer Pixel Press. Kids can also draw up 3-D prototypes of gears and gadgets using Tinkercad, a computer-based design tool, and print out their creations on a 3-D printer.
In the entrepreneurs’ marketplace, they can design buttons and business cards to market their ideas and inventions. And the Magic House @ MADE even features some real-world examples of products created by kids who’ve done just that.
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The design lab includes an architecture area stocked with supplies from 3DuxDesign, a company founded by siblings Ayana and Ethan Klein, two of the featured speakers at a preview party celebrating the space Thursday. 3Dux building sets consist of cardboard shapes and simple connectors that allow kids the flexibility to build and embellish an endless variety of structures. While her brother and co-founder attend high school, Ayana, who just finished her freshman year at Washington University, will work at The Magic House @ Made starting this fall, serving as an inspiration to young people who might want to follow in her footsteps.
Indeed, organizers hope The Magic House @ MADE mints many entrepreneurs in the coming years. They also envision some visitors will go on to take classes at MADE, the maker space for adults on the building's lower level, and eventually find their way to jobs in the city’s Cortex technology district.
courtesy of the magic house
With that long-term vision in mind, the Cortex Innovation Community contributed $500,000 toward equipment, exhibits, operation, and free admission and programs for children and families from underserved areas. Overall, organizers aim for 50 percent of visitors to attend free or at reduced rates, according to Beth Fitzgerald, president of The Magic House, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year.
“In addition to reaching new children and families," she says, "we will also be able to increase our commitment in providing free services for children in need through partnerships with schools, libraries, and community organizations in the area."
Regular admission for The Magic House @ MADE is $5 for visitors 1 and older. Family Memberships, offering unlimited admission to The Magic House @ MADE, are available beginning at $50 a year. Active-duty U.S. military and their immediate family members (military ID holder and five immediate family members) receive free admission. Foster families receive free admission with proof of a current foster home license.
