Let Your Creativity Shine through Duke Arts and Innovation Co-Lab Workshops

Duke Arts Create

Joshua Salaam had worked as chaplain and director of Duke's Center for Muslim Life for five years before he found himself in the Duke Arts Annex last year, and it’s already become a favorite spot for him and his wife.

"You don't have to necessarily be into art to go. When you go there, there's a different type of energy," he said. "There's always people working on small projects, or you can just walk through to see stuff that they have, like the pottery and screen printing."

The annex, operated by Duke Student Affairs, is open to faculty and staff to use, and is the spot of many of Duke Arts’ most popular events: free art workshops for the Duke community.

Each semester, Duke Arts hosts “Duke Art Create” workshops for all skill levels on painting, drawing, ceramics, printmaking and sewing and textiles. Held in the evenings, workshops are all led by local artists and designed to be entry-level. Duke Arts releases its workshop schedule at the beginning of every month during academic semesters at arts.duke.edu, and registration opens on the Friday preceding each class. Workshops often fill up quickly, but Duke Arts always accepts a few walk-ups at each class.

 Classes are expected to begin again Jan. 11

Alpha Esser, an IT technical trainer at the Duke Clinical Research Institute, has been a regular participant in the workshops over the past two years, attending sessions for pottery, potato stamp making and painting. The structure of the workshops and guidance from local artists, she said, helps the projects feel more approachable and fun — even if the final piece isn't heading to a museum anytime soon.

"It doesn't matter if it's good. It's a great way to just get outside of your box, meet other Duke people and just do something fun for an hour," Esser said.

It's an opportunity that Salaam plans on taking advantage of. On the Salaams' first visit to the Duke Arts Annex, Salaam and his wife painted with watercolors. The next, they melted wax to create art. Up next: screen printing and sewing.

"I'm a different type of artist — I do music. I don't really do this type of artwork, but I enjoy it," Salaam said. "It's very calming. After a hard week at work, it's really cool to go in there, and your mind just kind of gets lost in the activity."

Innovation Co-Lab and Roots Workshops

If you're looking to tinker with a design or bring a specific vision to life, an Innovation Co-Lab makerspace is the place for you.

With locations at the Technology Engagement Center, Rubenstein Arts Center and Lilly Library, the Co-Lab spaces and the Roots program provides the tools, high-tech equipment and expertise for the Duke community to bring almost any design to life. The tools, which include 3D printers, laser cutters, sewing machines, water jet cutters, routers and vinyl cutters, are free for students, faculty and staff to use. For certain workshops, makers are responsible for providing materials for projects.

"We wanted a space where people could come and have the ability to make things, meet like-minded people, have that sense of community," said Elizabeth Villalta, the technology education coordinator at the makerspaces. "This space is for everyone. It's really valuable to have people from across the university come in and discover new tools and new skills."

While Villalta encourages makers to explore new tools and ways of creating, the spaces also provide the on-site support and education to help new makers find their way through online and in-person courses that teach users the basics of various tools.

A 3D printing class was Dr. Xiaoyin “Sara” Jiang’s first foray into the makerspaces years ago, and now she uses the space at the Technology Engagement Center to 3D print molds of specimens for her work.

Jiang, an associate professor of pathology and the chief of the Head and Neck Pathology Service at Duke University School of Medicine, uses gelatin and silicone in molds printed at the makerspace to make phantoms — or stand-ins for human tissue — to give the trainees she teaches the opportunity to practice in three-dimensions before working with patients.

"It's been really exciting to have these options," Jiang said. "It's certainly been really fun for me to learn things that are slightly outside of traditional research avenues. It's just an amazing resource to make your career more fun and more productive.”

August Burns, business manager of the Fitzpatrick Institute for Photonics in the Pratt School of Engineering, first tapped into the on-campus resource in 2016 when a conference cohosted by the institute and Innovation Co-Lab introduced her to the possibilities of 3D printing.

Today, her office on West Campus is full of tools, knick-knacks and a sculpture of the Duke University Chapel made at the makerspaces. Burns' fascination with 3D printing quickly grew into laser cutting, screen printing, sticker making on a Cricut machine and most recently, glass-etching. They're all skills she's been using to create one-of-a-kind gifts and to make shirts and customized notebooks for the events sponsored by the institute.

Though the equipment in the spaces has provided Burns with tools for a creative outlet, she says it's the on-campus maker community of supportive students and staff that has been most rewarding.

The facilities, combined with the community it nurtures, make for a special perk of working at Duke, she said.

 "Most workplaces you would not get this experience. We are so fortunate to have the opportunity to access the makerspace,” Burns said. “The students, doctors, faculty & staff that I meet create an amazing community to learn and simply make things amazing."

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