Maker Faire Bay Area 2023

The IDEA Center

Home: California, United States

The IDEA Center is a community makerspace located in Ventura, California and built on a core initiative of creating accessible opportunities in STEAM. With an emphasis on empowering disadvantaged areas of our local community, the IDEA Center offers access to a wide range of technologies as well as the classes and training necessary to support them. Additionally, we provide free scholarships to every student enrolled in our public schools up to the college level to the end of our mission to create expanded and equitable access. The IDEA Center is a place where young learners, hobbyists, and professionals of all backgrounds can interact and explore the intersections that exist between technology, art, engineering, and design. Stop by our booth to see our kinetic sculptures!

https://www.stembassadors.net/new-idea-center-page
The IDEA Center - Maker Faire Bay Area

Additional Project Photos

Maker

Default Maker Photo

The IDEA Center

The IDEA Center is a community makerspace located in Ventura, California and built on a core initiative of creating accessible opportunities in STEAM with an emphasis on empowering disadvantaged areas of our local community.

https://www.stembassadors.net/new-idea-center-page

What Inspired You to Make This?

Our sculptures are inspired by the work of kinetic sculpture artist Rueben Margolin, a bay area local. His work has fascinated us for many years and inspired the invention of our own kinetic sculptures which expose the beauty of engineering mechanisms in an artistic form. Because our creative work is largely done with digital fabrication technologies, we are also inspired by the saying 'ideas to bits to atoms'. The idea is that at the core of every digi-fab process, you begin with an idea, translate that into a digital design, and translate that design into something real. Approaching different technologies in this way has allowed us to explore exciting areas of intersectionality where the line between art and engineering are blurred.