June 21, 2022
The Truckee Big Life Artist that will be featured this week at our Base Camp for a Big Life booth at Truckee Thursdays is Truckee Roundhouse, Truckee’s nonprofit community makerspace. The booth celebrates and highlights our Truckee Cultural District in collaboration with Truckee Arts Alliance and Truckee Public Arts Commission (TPAC). Stop by and say hi this Thursday, June 23. Also check out the Roundhouse’s annual Maker Show, a fun family-friendly community art, food, beer, music, and maker event that will be held this Sunday, June 26 from 11:00 am – 5:00 pm.
The Roundhouse is a nonprofit collaboration that supports the teaching, learning, and practicing of various crafts, skills, technologies, and arts in the Truckee-Tahoe community. They are a community-run, community-benefiting organization that is enriching lives with professional and recreational education programs for adults and youth.
The 46,000-square-foot Roundhouse offers five fully functioning shops: wood, metal, textiles, ceramics, and technology with a robust complement of high-quality tools, including cutting-edge CNC Laser Cutters, Plasma Cutters, and 3D printers.
Today the Roundhouse boasts 200 members. They include minors from the age of 12 (accompanied by a guardian) to age 75. They are retiree guitar makers or furniture builders, entrepreneurs using the space to develop innovative prototypes, families working together on group projects, or fine artists making gallery pieces – there is no limit to the type of users the makerspace attracts.
The Roundhouse has forged many partnerships within the community. They partner with Keep Truckee Green to host “FixIt Clinics;” with Tahoe Truckee Unified School District’s Adult Education Program to offer a welding class that teaches career vocational skills; and with Sierra High School’s Sources of Strength (SOS) program that works to prevent suicide, violence and substance abuse.
Through their Education and Community Enrichment Program, they partner with local schools and nonprofits in creating workshops and custom projects to learn new skills, and forge valuable relationships through teamwork, with mentors and experienced users who work side-by-side with students. In 2019, they served more than 340 students, mainly ages 12-18, one-third of who were from underserved communities and whose families live below the poverty line. Their programs engage diverse socioeconomic and disabled populations, most of whom typically lack access to these kinds of opportunities or who face insurmountable challenges to access.
Truckee Roundhouse is open Tuesday through Sunday and offers a variety of classes and summer camps. For more information about classes, volunteering, membership, or the Maker Show, visit their website: truckeeroundhouse.org
