With the completion of its state-of-the-art 8,000-square-foot community makerspace, Talent Maker City (TMC) is poised to become Southern Oregon’s center for inspired innovation.

Based in Talent, Oregon, the $4.4-million building sits on the lot where commercial buildings burned to the ground during the 2020 Almeda Fire. Talent Maker City’s new makerspace will serve communities throughout southern Oregon offering STEAM-based education (combining science, technology, engineering, art, and math), as well as classes and programing to strengthen creative and economic innovation.

The Maker Movement, which emerged in the U.S. over a decade ago, features community-based maker spaces that encourage people to create, share, and learn through making. Designed to cultivate creativity and collaboration, and inspire innovative solutions, Talent Maker City provides space, tools, and resources to better equip southern Oregon communities with the skills to participate in a rapidly changing global economy.

“I still choke up a bit when I walk in the building,” said Executive Director Alli French. “After the Almeda fire ravaged downtown and displaced many from our most vulnerable communities we wanted to bring hope to those who lost so much and provide more programming and support for our struggling region.”

In 2021, as part of American Rescue Plan Act Funding passed through the state legislature for specialized projects in communities throughout Oregon, TMC received a $1.8 million grant directed by Rep. Pam Marsh. An ardent supporter of the TMC, Marsh believes Talent Maker City’s ability to listen to diverse voices of the community has enabled them to become a regional hub for creativity, collaboration, and innovation. “Talent Maker City is kind of the soul of Talent in some ways,” she said.

Project costs, including solar panels for the roof, a public art walkway, and a welding studio, total $4.4 million. In 2023, Talent Maker City launched an ambitious capital campaign to raise $2.5 million to purchase a higher-powered laser engraver, a water jet cutter and a large CNC machine, which uses preprogrammed computer software for machining metal and plastic parts. To generate curiosity in the trades, some walls were made of Plexiglas instead of drywall so visitors can see how things are put together. Formulas for concrete were stamped into the floor.

A month after the opening, French celebrated the support of the community.

“We couldn’t have created such an amazing space without generous donations from our community, builders and suppliers. The building is a bit larger than we initially planned but the community wanted us to design a maker space that honored the agricultural history of our community while still providing us space to grow. We are on track to have loans paid off within the next few years.”

This ‘can do’ attitude is at the heart of Talent Maker City’s mission. Reflecting back on Talent Maker City’s inception in 2016, French took a moment to acknowledge the creators who started the maker space.

“After our four founders wrote a proposal, our Town of Talent was named an official Etsy Maker City — one of just 13 invited to their inaugural summit.”

In 2017, TMC began running STEAM-based maker workshops for middle and high school youth at schools from Talent to Grants Pass. Workshops for adults were held at wine bars, goat farms, and Ashland High School. By 2018, they’d leased a 3,700-square-foot space in downtown Talent offering public workshops, after-school programs, and Summer STEAM Camps.

When the COVID-19 pandemic closed their doors, TMC pivoted. 3D printing machines churned 24 hours a day printing face shields, ventilator parts, and other personal protective equipment (PPE) for local hospitals.

Less than a year later, after the 2021 Alameda fire displaced a third of the town’s residents, Talent Maker City pivoted again.

To address the housing crisis and ongoing gaps in student learning, the maker space partnered with Medford local schools and The Skoolie Home Foundation. Working with Career Technical Education (CTE) educators and industry experts, students converted two retired school buses into homes for families displaced by the fire.

Partnering with Girls Build, TMC hosted free workshops to build wooden bed frames. In collaboration with Phoenix-Talent School District, and Phoenix-Talent Rising Academy (PTRA), middle school students built bookcases, picnic tables, benches, planter boxes and stairs for RVs where survivors are staying.

Kathy Deggendorfer, an eastern Oregon resident and founder & trustee of Roundhouse Foundation, became aware of the work of TMC in the aftermath of the Alameda fire. Struck by French’s ability to identify and articulate a need and use art, technology, and creativity to bring people together to recover their community, Deggendorfer compared TMC’s approach to regenerative agriculture.

“Alli and her team were able to take quick action and serve the needs of those most impacted. That’s what we need in rural communities, people who take a step forward, even if you fail. If it doesn’t work, you learn something. And then you build something else. You try to see what plants work in your soil and adapt to the needs at hand.”

As crisis after crisis befell her region, French and TMC pivoted and kept pivoting, kept offering new programs, believing a connected, prosperous, and resilient community gets stronger by making things together.

Today, the little corner of Talent devastated by the Almeda Fire of 2020 is starting to show signs of hope and growth. Humbled by the outpouring of support, French stated, “We’re already seeing a huge spike in numbers as people participate in our public workshops. We’re growing new partnerships with organizations including the Oregon Spinal Cord Injury Connection (OCSI) while expanding programming for current partners including Maslow Project, Rogue Food Unites, Jackson County Juvenile Justice, and Southern Oregon University. We want our new maker space to create a place of belonging where people not only learn new skills but get to know their neighbors, to find out new ideas, to talk about life, and collaborate in ways we haven’t yet dreamed of. If there’s anything we’ve learned over the last few years, it’s that the only way to get through all the challenges facing our region is to work together.”

To find out more about Talent Maker Cit, visit TalentMakerCity.org.

Carolyn Campbell is a freelance writer.