Exhibition dates: August 31 - September 14, 2023
Opening reception: Thursday, August 31, 5:00 - 9:00 p.m.
A retrospective exhibition of works intersecting science, technology, engineering, art and math
from UNC Asheville’s collaborative maker space
Nina Nichols and Amelia Pate step back to check the alignment of their chest panels on Mel Chin’s ‘Wake', 2020
Documentation of this project will be featured in the exhibition
Instructor Sam Crain supervises Jade as she solders the circuit for her electric guitar during SkillSet’s first “Build a Custom Guitar” summer camp, 2019
Completed examples from this program will be featured in the exhibition
John Sauvigne and Chas Llewellyn make adjustments to the locking mechanism on the ‘Safehouse Temple Door’, 2021
Documentation of this project will be featured in the exhibition
Dr. Lyndi Hewitt welds panels together for ‘To the World We Dream About’ for the First Year Seminar class The Art and Science of Social Resistance, 2021
This and other finished works from the course will be featured in the exhibition
Casey Watkins, Alex Levine, and Sara Sanders work on cutting fur templates for the elk from ‘Storytime in Woodland Cove’, 2021
Working animatronics from the project will be featured in the exhibition
Nicholas Grandstaff and Lief Van Sliedrecht make adjustments to the suspension on the ‘SAE Electric Racecar’ created for a UNCA Mechatronics Senior Design class, 2023
The completed vehicle will be featured in the exhibition
STEAM Studio was founded in 2016 by a collective of artists and engineers at UNC Asheville who saw value in collaboration, found inspiration in each other and the limitless potential of maker-based education to elevate the student experience and create positive change in our communities. The name STEAM reflects the movement in education to integrate the Sciences, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics in new and innovative ways to address complex problems through multidisciplinary solutions.
Our 12,000 sq ft facility is located a very short distance from campus at the River Arts Makers Place (RAMP), 821 Riverside Dr. Suite 140. The Studio is comprised of a state of the art wood shop, machine shop, welding fabrication bay, and a mezzanine level computer lab/classroom. 3,800 sq ft of configurable space is occupied by modular workbenches that can be moved aside to make room for large scale projects. We have water jet cutting, CNC machining, CNC routers, laser cutting, 3D printing in addition to a myriad of hand tools, standard shop machines and equipment for electronics and robotics. More than a container for tools and equipment, STEAM Studio is a space for radical collaboration and the manifestation of big visions.
Organized into three main areas of focus; academic classes, community outreach, and special projects, STEAM Studio serves as a bridge between the incredible work happening at UNC Asheville’s main campus and our greater community. Academic classes taught at STEAM are hands-on and range in discipline from Engineering and Sculpture, to Ancient Mediterranean Studies and Music. Our community outreach program, SkillSet, primarily serves 8-18 year old students through afterschool and summer camp experiences in the creative exploration of the science, technology, engineering, art and math that are embedded in the processes and objects that they make. Special projects are opportunities to engage academic classes, SkillSet classes, and student workers in real-world projects that bring together multiple disciplines to serve a client. The work in this show represents the emergence of these three areas of focus and the overlap and interactions between them over the past six years. The work is diverse, constructed with a wide range of media, for a wide range of purposes, and often created by multiple people on collaborative teams. In some cases, work was created by an individual and is presented here as a manifestation of the learning process and curriculum development.
Show runs August 31st - September 14th
A public reception will be held on Thursday, August 31st, 5-9pm
For more information on STEAM and to find ways to connect, visit our website steamstudio.unca.edu