Core77's retail enterprise, Hand-Eye Supply, is deep into the third week of a month long stay at Space 15 Twenty in Los Angeles and things are heating up! More on that in a following post though, for right now we'd like to give you, dear Internet friend, a behind the scenes peek at the making of the first ever Pop-up Institute for Craft and Ingenuity!

The project started percolating in the Fall of 2012 and developed from a simple pop-up shop into a full-on exhibtion and "educational happening" over the course of the Spring of 2013. Core77's mission has been to promote and recruit for the design professions since its inception in 1995 at Pratt Institute and with the launch of the Hand-Eye Supply store we broadened that mission to advocate for a life of making things in general wether through a DIY project or a trade or craft. It seemed natural then to push the opportunity a bit further and to give Space 15 Twenty's youthful, broad audience not only a taste of the Maker life and its accoutrements but also a chance to experience its community and practices first hand.

We let the idea of the Pop-Up Institute form both the physical space and the event line-up... The interior is divided into the key environments of creative activity - the workshop, the studio and the classroom - each populated with the appropriate tools and the results of their use. The programming focuses on bringing in local Los Angeles institutions, designers and themes to connect the broader message to moment and place. This effort has lead to, among other things, a film series examining the trials and rewards of creative endeavor, workshops with materials such as felt and wood, and evening activities to connect creative-types and to air ideas and projects. See our Pop-up Institute website - handeye.la - for the full run-down.

Below is a chronicle of our build-out and launch of the Institute - a rather impressive effort, if we do say so ourselves, for it took a 2400 sq ft. space from absolutely empty to fully constructed, stocked and merchandized in four days. After months of inventory purchasing, collateral production, event programming, staff coordination, and environmental design there was only a week-long opening to bring it all together. Odds against that happening grew when the first day of building was lost to a missing shipment of materials. But then the next day, with the lumber on-site, the HES staff tackling odd jobs and the seasoned team of Space 15 Twenty slicing down build-out task-lists with scary efficiency it all started to gel and success seemed possible again. By Friday afternoon it was over, with not an hour to spare, and after a final clean-up it was time to party!

Incredible credit and thanks go to the team at Hand-Eye Supply
Lyndsey Lee Denyer, Project Lead
Laurence Sarrazin, Environmental Design Lead
Tobias Berblinger, Manager
Christine Taylor, Photographer
Also to Emily, Kat, Matthew, Kathleen, Camille and Perry

And credit and incredible thanks to the U.O./Space 15 Twenty crew
Stephen Stonehill, Project Booster and Buildout Lead
Chris Woodhead, Project Booster
Kim Bruckbauer, Merchandizing and Coordination
Beau DeGeorge and Jeff Gauntt, Buildout Samurai

The Buildout

Straight to the Opening

The Finished Space

Addendum: Some Documents