Makerspace Members Area

 

The volunteer team at Colchester Makerspace have put measures in place to protect our members, making the space safe and secure. This page is an online area to enable members to stay up-to-date with progress and access essential information to use the facility. You’ll find anything from Inductions and Health and Safety information to a calendar of events, instructions for buying materials and booking classes. We suggest you bookmark this page for future reference and safe keeping.

Calendar of workshops, classes and events

Members and affordability are the bedrock of our facility. To be able to meet our rent, rates and bills we need to offer paid workshops, classes and tuition. Supporting creatives to grow and develop their practice is also integral to our vision as a not-for-profit enterprise.

Colchester Makerspace and how it grows is organic. We aim to create a balanced ecosystem with studio time for members, public access and supported learning opportunities.

Our vision is to run a community, cooperative art school style campus where direct teaching and self led learning happen side by side.

We are happy for Members to use the space while classes are happening. However this on the basis that Associate Artists leading the sessions…

  • Are in-charge of the space, given room and not disturbed

  • May ask you to stop work momentarily (e.g. up to 20 minutes or so) to create some focus time.

  • Takes exclusive priority on the relevant equipment associated with their class.

For example during the Pot Throwing Classes the wheels will be out of action but hand-building and using the risograph or silkscreen equipment will be fine. The same principle applies on other courses and equipment.

For a majority of the time, the space is free from classes. For now; we have restricted classes to Tuesday and Thursday evenings (6.30pm - 9.30pn, Saturday mornings (10.30am - 1.30pm) and one ‘Open Access Session’ each month on the first Wednesday.

We'll continue to review and promise to keep talking to you, our members. We will endeavour to ensure access feels fair and equitable.

Cancelling or pausing your membership

You have the right to cancel your membership at any time. At least one month advance notice is required.

We understand from time to time members may face financial difficulties. For this reason, as a community enterprise, we offer the ability to claim financial hardship and pause your membership for upto 6 months.

No payments will be taken during this period and your access card will be temporarily deactivated. After 6 months your card and payments will automatically restart unless you cancel and you will not have to recomplete the induction process or repay the £25.00 registration fee.

The option to pause can only be accessed once in the lifetime of a membership and can only be paused for financial hardship reasons. If a membership is cancelled for any reason and a member decides to rejoin at a later date, both the induction and the registration fee will be due.

Getting the most out of the space and staying safe

 
 

We can not do this without you. Keeping the space safe relies on our members using common sense and taking responsibility. If you see or hear of something that you think can be improved then simply let us know by filling in the contact form.

Thanks again for your support