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There's an amazingly special place in the heart of Milwaukee that brings together artists, craftspeople, business people, coders, attorneys, students, actors and people with a desire to explore.

You might have heard about coworking, and there are coworking studios popping up in cities across the globe.

Bucketworks is kind of like that - but a whole lot more. If coworking is pancakes, then Bucketworks is pancakes with chocolate chips, Vermont syrup and bacon on the side. Served with an energy drink.

Bucketworks is what James Carlson calls a health club for the brain. But instead of a bunch of sweaty excercise equipment, they've got digital cameras, computer labs, performance space, meeting space, and table saws. It's a place where anyone with an idea or a dream or a desire to explore can come and make things happen.

There are startups that are running their firms from Bucketworks. And theater groups are staging productions. And artists, craftspeople, writers and more that are collaborating on all sorts of imaginative goodness.

They're tied into the education system, the social services system, the corporate community, and of course the creative community. So it's not just a place for freelancers to rent workspace (although that's fine), but a place for the Boys and Girls Club to produce a theater piece. It's an event space for BarCamp. It's a gallery for art shows. It's a continuing education hub. It's anything that the community needs it to be.

We arrived in Milwaukee at a unique time in Bucketworks history. Their current space was recently flooded, and they're in the process of looking for new space in Milwaukee. They invited us along to tour a couple of the buildings they're considering - with some of the people that participate in Bucketworks everyday. It was great to see where they came from, and then view some of the new space and visualize where they might be a year from now. We witnessed the group collaborating, ideating and sharing excitement and concerns about each of the spaces we viewed.

Here's what we took away from Bucketworks:
+ This is a concept that's needed in every major market in the nation
+ There are passionate people who want to collaborate in ways you haven't imagined. Even where you live
+ Thinking outside of the creative community and involving non-profits, corporate partners and students pulls together an even greater pool or resources to make magic happen
+ When you open your space to uses beyond typical coworking applications, you create an environment that's vibrant, always evolving and engaging in different ways dependent on the time of the day
+ There are creative ways to finance, realize and make this happen. Even in your city.

See some of the people and space of Bucketworks in the PlaidNation wrapup video for our Milwaukee tour stop, and the entire photo set on Flickr.

Labels: bucketworks, milwaukee

posted by darryl ohrt at 7:12 AM

1 Comments:

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