More than 4,000 visitors interested in making everything from wool yarn and origami to robots and supercomputers visited Vanderbilt’s Wond’ry at the Innovation Pavilion on the first weekend in October for the Nashville Mini Maker Faire, the largest in the event’s five-year history.
Kevin Galloway, director of Design as an Immersive Vanderbilt Experience (DIVE), worked with organizers of Make Nashville on logistics and helped line up student volunteers. Make Nashville is a local nonprofit that describes itself as “a community of inventive, creative, artistic, innovative, fun and welcoming people who love to make things and have a great time doing it.”
“It was terrific to bring so many people with different experience and talents together,” Galloway says. “I’ve heard many people sharing information about how they produce their work.”
Miranda Nelson, the event’s producer, said attendees enjoyed experiencing the Wond’ry, Vanderbilt’s new center for making, innovation and entrepreneurship.
“I want to thank everyone involved, including the Vanderbilt personnel who handled facilities, parking, maintenance and cleaning, plus all the Wond’ry staff and student volunteers,” she says.
The Nashville Mini Maker Faire, free to all who attended, featured 93 exhibitors, plus food trucks and live music all day.
—HEIDI HALL
PHOTOGRAPHY BY SUSAN URMY