Maker Library Network
Exhibition commissioned by the British Council, aimed at connecting designers and makers in the UK and South Africa, through sustainable and scalable means of building a critically engaged international community.
- Submitting institution
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Kingston University
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- 32-21-1680
- Type
- M - Exhibition
- Venue(s)
- Design Indaba Expo 2014, Cape Town, South Africa
- Open access status
- -
- Month of first exhibition
- February
- Year of first exhibition
- 2014
- URL
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https://design.britishcouncil.org/projects/makerlibraries/
- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
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- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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- Research group(s)
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- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- Conceived and developed by Daniel Charny, Maker Library Network (2014–17) is the result of a British Council commission to create a
programme that connects designers and makers in the UK and South Africa as part of British Council Connect ZA (2014). The outcome was
Maker Library Network (2014–17), a cultural exchange framework and open-source resource aimed at providing a sustainable and scalable
means of building a critically engaged, connected international community of designers and makers. It was launched at Design Indaba
Expo 2014, Cape Town, ZA, 28 February–2 March 2014, and run by the British Council until 2017.
Maker Library Network (2014–17) was devised through a series of collaborative, co-design workshops and a process of iterative
prototyping. The concept, which was rolled out by the British Council with Charny as Creative Director, took the shape of a toolkit that
stimulated reflective practice in maker-based studios, connected them through a creative network, facilitated cultural exchange,
advanced professional practice and fostered social outreach programmes. Each Maker Library was run by a Maker Librarian.
The Maker Librarians became a connected community of critically engaged creative practitioners, who developed new formats for
encouraging public engagement with making.
The Maker Library Network (2014–17) system combines three elements – Making/Workshop, Reading/Library, and Curating/Display – which are brought together to enable cultural exchange in making environments and achieve scalability and replicability (O’Reilly, 2012; Tayabal, 2014). The programme included 21 Maker Libraries in 15 cities located in eight countries. It created 150 events, workshops and exhibitions, which were presented to an audience of over 520,000. The Maker Library Network model influenced subsequent programmes developed by
the British Council, such as Crafting Future; inspired new networks (MakerMile) and spaces (GRAS); and developed creative businesses
(LadiesStartUp Weekend, ThingKing Micro Business Kits) and skills programmes (The Employable Nation).
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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