As soon as the news broke last summer that the University City Science Center-based Department of Making and Doing (DM + D) was closing in the fall, four local organizations which shared DM + D’s collaborative space began looking for new homes. One of them, a popular technology education program, The Hacktory, has just announced that they found a new space at 3645-3647 Lancaster Avenue, right around the corner from their previous location at 3711 Market Street.

Program executive director Georgia Guthrie writes that The Hacktory team is very excited about the move. “We will be joining the vibrant businesses along Lancaster Ave (as you can see we’re right next door to the Green Line Coffee shop) and look forward to contributing to the great arts and cultural activities taking place there,” Guthrie’s blog post reads.

           Photos courtesy of The Hacktory.

The Grand Opening Party for the new space, which includes two adjacent storefronts, will take place on Saturday, Feb. 6, from 1 – 9 p.m. There will be fun activities for all ages and demos of The Hacktory’s tools. The evening portion of the party will include activities and beverages for adults who want to continue to celebrate. For more information, visit the event’s Facebook page.

The Hacktory has been offering tech education programming for both adults and youth, including classes and workshops, an after-school program and summer camp. They also want to offer memberships at the new location in order to provide direct access to their tools and space. Those who are interested in becoming a member are asked to fill out a membership interest form on this page.

For more information about The Hacktory, visit www.thehacktory.org.

The Department of Making + Doing (DM + D), a collaborative workspace among four Philadelphia organizations, The Hacktory, NextFab Studio, Public Workshop, and Science Center’s First Hand, will close in November, according to Technically Philly. The University City Science Center-based space has been hosting youth-oriented workshops and other programming in technology, design, fabrication, and art for more than two years. DM + D partners revealed that the reason for closing the workshop is sustainability issues at the current location at 3711 Market St.

The good news though is that the four organizations are planning to continue their work at other locations. The Hacktory, which joined the collaborative and moved to the Science Center last year, is currently looking for a new space in West Philly, according to Technically Philly. The tech group offers classes and afterschool programs for local youth. We’ll let you know when we have more information about their new location.

Those walking by the Science Center building on 37th and Market street can see colorful displays on the first floor windows, but little do most know that those colorful displays belong to an innovation tech camp called The Hacktory. The name was created to describe two goals the group set out to accomplish: find solutions and create products.

An early inception of the organization was created in 2007, which met on a monthly basis to celebrate do-it-yourself efforts in engineering and technology. Georgia Guthrie, The Hacktory’s executive director, began volunteering with the group right before it ran out of steam in 2009 but she was determined to keep it going in some sort of capacity.

Today, The Hacktory has three teachers and one teaching assistant. Currently one workshop is being offered, a micro controller programming class for Raspberry Pi. Past classes have covered topics such as building a bike bag, building a DIY arcade, intro to data mapping with map-making interface CatroDB and more.

The Hacktory also offers a weekly after-school program for 3rd to 5th graders (Kid’s Club), and enrollment has begun for its summer camp programs, which kick off on June 22. 
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