DIY Collective: A Design Intensive for Youth

Earlier this year we selected 10 young people—high schoolers and recent high-school grads, all super-committed and enthusiastic Wex fans—to take part in the DIY Collective, a design intensive that will help inform our plans for our new education facility, which will open in the fall of 2014. (After all, when it’s finished, the new space will include a studio and drop-in center for teens, so we wanted to make sure we heard their voices in the planning process.) The two-week program began July 16; so far, participants have had a chance to meet with architectural and design professionals and visit places such as the Dinin’ Hall, in Franklinton, as they prepare to show us their own ideas for our new space in a special presentation on July 27.

DIY Collective participant and Clintonville resident Hannah, 16, has been coming to the Wexner Center with her parents since she was a young child. Here, she reflects on her experience so far.

In only a few days, the DIY Collective team and I have gotten the chance to meet some amazing local architects, tour cool spaces around Columbus and begin work on our individual projects. So far, the experience to me has been incredible—not only a learning experience, but a chance to show my creativity and meet other youth from Columbus who are involved in the Wexner. This opportunity is helping me not only to become more familiar with the Wexner Center, but also makes me feel like I’m doing something to give back to the place I’ve spent so much of my time at. I feel so lucky to be part of this process, and I’m looking forward to what the coming days have to offer me and the rest of the group.