Urban School Foundation

About Chicago Northside Mini Maker Faire:

Chicago Northside Mini Maker Faire is the first and largest officially licensed Maker Faire in the Chicagoland area. In 2011, local lockpicker and math educator Christina Pei teamed up with Principal Dan Kramer of Schurz High School to found a local, grassroots celebration of the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) spirit in Chicago. Chicago Northside Mini Maker Faire focuses on education across all ages and social groups. Our makers represent a mix of beginners and experts, hobbyists and professionals, groups and individuals, and all ages, backgrounds, and interests. With a shoestring budget and only a dream, our inaugural Mini Maker Faire in April, 2012 was a smashing success thanks to the 50+ makers who shared their talents in 3D printing, robotics, jewelry making, and urban farming, just to name a few. Now with close to 100 makers, we're still growing. Come experience it for yourself! 

Questions? Contact us: CNSmakerfaire@gmail.com

About Maker Faire:

Maker Faire is the Greatest Show (and Tell) on Earth—a family-friendly showcase of invention, creativity and resourcefulness, and a celebration of the Maker movement. It’s a place where people show what they are making, and share what they are learning.

Makers range from tech enthusiasts to crafters to homesteaders to scientists to garage tinkerers. They are of all ages and backgrounds. The aim of Maker Faire is to entertain, inform, connect and grow this community.

The original Maker Faire event was heldin San Mateo, CA and in 2013 celebrated its eighth annual show with some 800 makers and 120,000 people in attendance. World Maker Faire New York, the other flagshipevent, has grown in four years to 500+ makers and 55,000 attendees. Detroit, Kansas City, Newcastle (UK), and Tokyo are the home of “featured” Maker Faires (200+ makers), and community-driven, independently organized Mini Maker Faires are now being produced around the United States and the world—including right here in Chicago Northside.

Maker Faire is organized by MAKE magazine and supported by O'Reilly Media.

About MAKE Magazine:

MAKE is the first magazine devoted entirely to Do-It-Yourself (DIY) technology projects. MAKE unites, inspires, informs, and entertains a growing community of resourceful people who undertake amazing projects in their backyards, basements, and garages. MAKE celebrates your right to tweak, hack, and bend any technology to your will. Subscribe here.

Besides the magazine and the faire, MAKE is:

• a vital online stream of news and projects, blog.makezine.com;
• a retail outlet for kits and books, the Maker Shed;
• a steady stream of fun and instruction via our YouTube channel;
• Make: Projects, a library of projects with step-by-step instructions
• a book publishing imprint with best-in-category titles on introductions to electronics, Raspberry Pi, Arduino and more.