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Previously in Industry City: Craft in Focus Festival and Open Studios

The Craft in Focus Festival returns to Industry City (238 36th Street, Brooklyn, NY11232) May 18, 19 and 20 for it’s second year in the US. It’s different than most craft festivals because there are so many hands-on workshop opportunities to work with professionals and learn a new skill. They even have workshops for kids starting at age 7. Some of the workshops include: calligraffiti by Dutch artist Daan Wille; airbrush by Dutch expert Marissa Oosterlee; stained glass by Glass Art of Brooklyn; backstrap weaving by Weaving Hand;Violin f-hole making with Lukas Wronski; basketry by master Esmé Hofman; and spoon making by Brooklyn Metal Works. Scroll down for some great Instagram examples.

The Textile Arts Center will be doing a workshop on suminagashi and there will be robot and tiny house building with KoKo NYC. Both the Textile Arts Center and KoKo NYC are members of our Virtual Camp Expo and offer camps for kids this summer.

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Festival hours are 11am – 6pm, doors open 10:30am. Entrance is free, but classes are ticketed and different prices.

To find out more I talked to Monika Wuhrer, Executive Director of KoKo NYC.

Is this the first time you participated in the Craft in Focus festival?

No, we already participated 2 years ago, the first time they organized it at Industry City/ USA. We had a great experience. It was well organized and they had great workshops to offer.

What are you going to build and how did you decide on that?

We are offering 2 workshops. We will run a BitBots workshop, where kids can explore simple recyclables as well as electronics like LED’s and hobby motors and bring their projects to life with a hand-made bike generator. Outside we will bring our new Tiny House-style workshop. This is a work in progress where workshop by workshop we will improve the building. Teens are in charge of building the Tiny House (with some supervision) and the kids are adding onto it at the workshops, piece by piece. At the Fair we are thinking to add more bike generators, maybe a windmill, finish the table – in general there will be tools like drills and handsaws for kids and adults to be working with and we are hoping for some genius ideas to make this Tiny House into a sustainable mobile workshop.

Do kids have to sign up for a workshop and how do they do that? Is there anything else to do if they don’t sign up for the workshop?

They do have to sign up for workshops, but for example working on the Tiny House is a free activity. There is plenty of things to do, but I would still encourage everyone to try out some of these great workshop offerings.
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Thanks Monika!

 

Also this weekend in Industry City, Industry City Studios will open their doors to the public for Open Studios 2019. On Saturday and Sunday, May 18 and 19, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily, visitors will be able to tour the studios of nearly 100 painters, photographers, printmakers, sculptors, and video artists, among others.