Brownsville, Brooklyn – Made in Brownsville today announced the grand opening of their new home, The Labs. The Labs is the first transdisciplinary youth creative agency and fabrication lab in Brownsville. The 1,750 square foot community design center has co-working space, a media lab, and a growing fabrication lab equipped with woodworking and rapid prototyping tools. They offer creative services such as logo design, web development, product design and fabrication, videography and more.
Made in Brownsville’s mission is to increase access to design and technology professions and to tackle youth unemployment amongst disconnected youth in Brownsville which is amongst the highest in NYC at a rate of 1 in 4. Their core programs include a paid STEAM apprenticeship for 14 to 24 years olds, institution-based programming and public workshops. Participants have worked on projects that promote wellness, activated vacant spaces, and promoted local businesses throughout the neighborhood.
The grand opening kicks off the first in a series of open house events called Creative Fridays, meant to cultivate the creative community in East Brooklyn and build a support network for aspiring and practicing creatives. At this event, youth will lead workshops in art therapy, live
The space is the vision of Brownsville native, Quardean Lewis-Allen, a Harvard graduate who wanted to create the space he wanted, in his community growing up as an aspiring designer. “I want for my community the same access to cutting edge technology and mentorship as top tier academic institutions.”
A recent alum and now full-time employee of the program, D’angelo Heyward, says “Before MiB, I didn’t really have a sense of direction.” His capstone project included creating merchant spotlight interviews for the Be On Belmont campaign to promote and revive the corridor. “I’m able to serve my community in ways I hadn’t thought about.”
Grand opening and first Creative Friday event will take place from 6-9pm September 21 and is already sold out but free tickets are still available for future Creative Friday events.
This initiative is supported by the NYC Department of Small Business Services.
