Makerspace creates practical, interpersonal skills in Prospect Park

Leonardo’s Basement offers people of all ages experience with woodworking, metalworking, 3D printing, video game design, CAD design, laser engraving and more

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By Evan Pederson / The Hubbard School

A child-sized suit of armor standing along Malcolm Avenue SE guards the entrance to a creative wonderland.

A small house tied under a large bag of colorful balloons suspended from the ceiling, a massive red Etch-A-Sketch that leads down the main pathway of the interior, a hangout spot to the left of the entrance with couches, chairs and an old refrigerator and a Star Wars-themed shelf with a sculpture of Yoda are just a few of the oddities at the entrance. Farther into the building is a seemingly endless expanse of stocked shelving and homemade creations. The buzzes and whirs of power tools fill the large workspace. 

Leonardo’s Basement is a nonprofit educational organization that gives kids and adults hands-on experience using tools and a selection of crafting materials uncommon in typical school or work settings. Leonardo’s Basement chose their name in reference to Leonardo da Vinci’s representation of a curious and observing mind and the informal nature of a basement, where tinkering and exploration is encouraged, according to their website.

In their 26th year of existence and the organization’s 18th month at their Prospect Park location, Leonardo’s Basement hosts summer camps, adult and family sessions, birthday parties, bachelorette parties and entire schools for hours or days at a time.

Tracy Nielsen, co-executive director at Leonardo’s Basement, who started 21 years ago teaching a dark room photography class, said she could not be happier still working there.

“This idea of this very organic way for people to work in community with each other was amazing,” Nielsen said. “You have to work together, problem solve together, even if you're working on your own thing.”

During the summer months, Leonardo’s Basement is solely open to kids and teens aged 6 to 17. Weekly programs give kids the opportunity to design, craft and problem-solve nearly anything their imagination allows them to. 

Currently, the do-it-yourself environment offers a metal shop where kids 14 and older can cut, grind and weld metal; a woodshop with hand saws, vices, drills and power tools; and a computer room dedicated to computer-aided design, video game design, 3D printing, animation and laser engraving. 

Younger children can still build in the LEGO section. Three separate bays each marked with a massive cardboard dragon, shark or custom made spider can be used for random arts and crafts. An outdoor space called the adventure playground houses bigger creations such as a massive Death Star made from wood and metal sheets.

Nielsen said the kids are encouraged to do whatever they want while they are there as long as they follow three rules: be nice, be safe, and have fun.

“Our goals haven't changed,” Nielsen said. “Kids haven't changed. So it's really, for our summer program, giving kids an opportunity to have meaningful control over what they make.”

Anthony Troullier, 19, is home for the summer after his freshman year at Michigan Technological University and has worked at Leonardo’s Basement since the middle of June helping kids with whatever project they may have.

Troullier previously attended Leonardo’s Basement in 2020 and 2021, when, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, patrons were safely able to attend. He built both a wooden and a metal shelf and a rebar spiderweb lawn decoration for his grandmother over his two summers. 

Having never been in the space when kids were around, Troullier said he was unsure if he would enjoy the experience as much as he did when he attended as a patron. However, after his first day, he realized he made the right choice.

“I remember after my first day back in June, I kind of thought, man, it's a lot of fun to watch kids do engineering stuff,” Troullier said. “And to think, man, when I was young, I would have loved to just experiment and build stuff and see how things go together. It’s just a lot of fun to watch kids do that, and I'm like, I get to help them do that.”

Although hands-on-experience with tools and materials is a large part of the program, Nielsen said the end goal for her campers is about more than practical skills.

“It translates into those kinds of soft skills: decision making, frustration tolerance, being able to recover when things don't go the way you want them to – which happens when you make things – and being able to work together,” Nielsen said.

When asked about some of the coolest things Nielsen has seen created in her time at Leonardo’s Basement, she said she remembers the moments of learning and process she saw people undergo more than the physical creations.

“Not as much the finished product, but when someone figures out a way to, like, connect two pieces of wood with a wooden dowel, or when a kid discovers something on their own and makes this mechanical part, those kinds of little moments,” Nielsen said. “To figure out a solution to a problem they want to solve, that’s something we really value.”

By the second day of the program, 7-year-old Felix Wolf had already engineered a custom “shrink ray” out of a broken electrical drill, a creepy doll and a dice game made from an old 3D printer.

Maddie Kindelspire, 10, had brewed a collection of “deep ocean potions” made of water, food coloring, sand and rocks found in the outdoor adventure playground and two boats that float holding toy piranhas, a cat, and other trinkets.

Henry Wolf, 10, had spent most of his time in the LEGO section and said he wanted to continue to create with the colorful building blocks.

“I’m building, like, famous landmarks,” Henry said. “So I’ve got the Golden Gate Bridge, Eiffel Tower and Empire State Building, and then I'm just putting snakes and dinosaurs all over it.” 

Nielsen said the experience kids get from this program do not need to be put toward a career in STEM. They can be used as life skills and create productive habits.

“If they leave here and they never use a saw again, they got that experience working with tools and making things and it still helped,” Nielsen said. “We helped them work through those things, like being frustrated and recovering and maybe being nervous about using a saw and overcoming that fear, and then looking at something that they feel good about.”

In order to give more kids access to the creative space and materials, Nielsen wants to reach out to communities and schools that may not have the resources to attend.

“We are always looking to grow our partnerships with schools where kids don't have access,” Nielsen said. “Where, for whatever reason, families are unable to bring their kids here, where typically, those are economic reasons.”