In the past twelve months, my role as Project Lead for Make Huyton Village and Make on the Corner has been a whirlwind and has gone by in a flash. As anyone who has met me will already know, I love a project – and the more complex the better! I love breathing new life into buildings that have been empty and neglected, giving them a second chance and highlighting the dignity of their past. I hope that my passion for art, community and social impact fosters environments where creativity, collaboration and cooperation can develop and flourish.
At Make Huyton Village, we have scrubbed and cleaned, built and painted and now have 9 private spaces and 24 Open Plan spaces. 17 spaces are already occupied by 15 creative individuals, organisations and companies. Our residents include independent artists, designers, illustrators and publishers, as well as arts organisation Heart of Glass, renewable energy pioneers Wave Venture, vegan confections company The Tuckshop and dance company and school MD Ltd. We have 2 private studios available, the Cashier’s Office at the rear of the building and Shed 2 situated in the shop floor area. We also have 6 double spaces and 3 single spaces to let in the Open Plan area.
Make Huyton Village is also home to the Innovation Lab. Each Make has a specialty – at Make North Docks there is the Wood Workshop and at Make Hamilton Square there is a Community Garden with beehives and hops that we make honey and beer out of every year. So here in Huyton we have the Innovation Lab, kitted out with 3D printers, a laser cutter and CNC as well as power and hand tools, allowing our residents access to easy fabrication and prototyping.
Make on the Corner is Make’s community space in Huyton. Over the past year it has had a facelift and has hosted exhibitions, workshops, classes, dance rehearsals, meetings, job interviews and community consultations, amongst many other things. Make on the Corner is available to hire for anyone who has a creative idea, a skill to share, a start-up business to promote or a place to host a book club or play board games; whatever you like really, as long as it is creative or community orientated!
Ahead of Christmas last year, we opened the Make Huyton Village Shop where we sold items handmade by our residents here in Huyton.
March 2024 and beyond
In the coming 12 months we have big plans!
We are setting up a monitor in the window of Make Huyton Village which will showcase our residents and keep the community informed about who is doing what at Make. We will also continue hosting Open Days on one Saturday each month. To sign up to an upcoming Open Day click here.
At Make Huyton Village we are building more studio space and developing the back of the building off Lathom Road. Our aim is to become fully accessible to residents 24/7 and transform the car park into a space for gatherings, gardening and socialising. Inside the building there will be between 6 and 8 more private studios available alongside some storage and sound proofed space for voice recording, podcasting, video calls and online classes and meetings.
This year we will be launching a membership programme for the Innovation Lab, a lot like the membership we have at the Wood Workshop at North Docks. We will also be running classes for the high value tools, such as the laser cutter, CNC and 3D printers.
In our shopfront area leading onto Derby Road; Huyton Village’s pedestrianised shopping street; we have plans to reopen the Village Shop for the summer months on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. We are working with our residents, Heart of Glass, to offer a Reading Room in the shop. During shop opening hours anyone will be able to take a seat, study, unwind, read and do some people watching – the Reading Room is also intended as a space to learn, with its own programme of social and educational events.
Behind the counter we will have a permanent timeline exhibition focusing on the Mayfair building and its journey from state-of-the-art cinema in the 1930s to a (now) Maker Space in the 2020s. We want to work with the community on this project, with opportunities to share memories, memorabilia and stories from the Mayfair Cinema, also known as ‘The Ranch’, and all its past iterations.
Over at Make on the Corner we will continue programming classes, workshops and events and inviting the community to use the space.. To find out more about Make on the Corner and how to hire the space, please contact Make HQ on hello@makecic.org or call and leave a message on 0151 601 8665.If you want to stay in touch and find out what we are up to, sign up to our newsletter here.
