When I left home for college, one of the hardest goodbyes I had to say was to my sewing machine. While my (let’s be honest—unhealthy) attachment to my sewing machine is not a universal problem, everyone has a creative muscle to flex and small spaces (hello, dorm rooms!) are just not conducive to getting crafty.
Thankfully, the MSA/GPC Craft Studio at Mizzou offers a solution. The workspace, conveniently located in the basement of Memorial Student Union, is a studio, classroom and gallery available to all Mizzou students, regardless of skill level. Here are five great reasons to get involved with the Craft Studio:
1. Free crafternoons
The Mizzou Craft Studio offers free Crafternoons every Friday from 12-4 p.m. where you can learn to make fun crafts geared towards college students of any skill level, like desk organizers and braided bracelets. Amy Hay, the studio’s Special Events and Promotions Advisor, recommends Crafternoons to those students who don’t have a lot of crafting experience — she calls the crafts “unmess-upable.” Instead of hanging out in the crowded Student Center between classes, drop by the Studio and give the craft whizzes in charge half an hour of your time. They’ll guide you to create a unique DIY, completely free!
Weekly Crafternoons have already been planned between Sept. 5 and Dec. 5 with crafts ranging from mini-notebooks, coasters and the woven baskets you see below. For all you procrastinators out there, Oct. 31 has been reserved for Last-Minute Halloween Help.
2. The classes
The last thing you want to do is take more classes, right? Wrong! The Craft Studio offers a diverse list of classes for creative types of any skill-level. Class offerings are interesting and unique; you won’t find Underwater Basket Weaving in the course catalogue.
All classes meet once a week for three hours. The duration of classes varies between one-, three-, and five- week classes. Five-week classes let artists delve deep into the medium; subjects include everything from pottery to darkroom photography to woodworking. One class called Experimental Painting stands out — it uses “a variety of non-traditional tools and techniques to get you painting outside the box,” according to the Craft Studio’s Fall 2014 catalogue.
3. The workspace
The studio offers plenty of room to exercise your creativity. Spaces available include a darkroom, a ceramics studio with a kiln, a woodshop, screen-printing studio and general classroom. The impressive stash of craft supplies includes everything from buttons to markers to woodworking tools — you name it, they’ve got it.
Students that don’t want to enroll in a class can take advantage of the space by signing up for a membership. For $30, students receive a semester of access to the space and full use of the craft stash — within reason, of course.
4. The people
The lovely and creative people alone make a trip to the Craft Studio worth it. The studio employs approximately 45 people including student workers and full-time staff members. Student employees, both undergraduate and graduate students, teach classes, host special events and make the studio an inviting place. Staff members are always happy to give studio tours, answer questions or just talk about art.
5. The student gallery
The Craft Studio devotes a large part of its space to a gallery featuring work by student and regional artists. The gallery show is updated every two weeks with the exception of the month of March, when the space is devoted to the studio’s annual Women in the Arts exhibit.
The gallery space is available to anyone with a body of work to show. There is a small fee to cover administrative costs and artists have the option to sell their work on consignment through the studio. Regardless of whether you have a membership, visiting the gallery is always free. Stop by to see what your fellow tigers are creating!
(Photos by Marilyn Haigh)