
The youth from AS220’s Broad Street Studio program have been making (and selling) some very cool things in the Providence Fab Lab at AS220 Labs:
Kafumba is a member of AS220’s Broad Street Studio youth program, which offers arts and technology workshops to at-risk and under-served youth at AS220’s building in downtown Providence and inside Rhode Island’s juvenile prison.
This holiday season, Kafumba and about 30 other youth, are taking a product design class at AS220 Labs, taught by AS220 Labs staff and a designer from the Providence-based medical device product development firm Ximedica. The young people have been making and selling handcrafted merchandise in AS220’s Fab Lab — a suite of personal fabrication equipment and software created at MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms. They include a laser cutter, milling machine, and a vinyl cutter.
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Kafumba, a freshman at Community College of Rhode Island, is picking up his ESL credits there and plans to transfer to a four-year art school next year. He is working in AS220’s Fab Lab to improve his college portfolio.
This work is being done on a shoestring budget. The young people at AS220 Labs have accomplished all this in the Fab Lab with a $500 supply budget that is quickly dwindling.
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