History

The idea of MAxT was conceived in basements, event halls and board rooms by community volunteers  throughout 2014-2015. The idea was simple – people in our region were creative, talented and ready to bring renewal to our region – but they needed resources that were not available at the time, and they needed them to be affordable. A makerspace, such as the one that had recently been formed in Nashua, was a good fit for our community.

How to make it happen? TBH they weren’t entirely sure – they just decided to do it. Like any other maker project, they intentionally followed a process that allowed us to test ideas, be responsive and gradually improve.

1.	Planning:

First step was to understand more about the community and what they were looking for – the first year the loose group that called itself Monadnock Makers held events, workshops and conducted surveys to learn more. They started visiting other spaces, reviewing their documentation and talking to their founders.

Second step – form an organization with the leadership to push things forward. The loose group became a non-profit called Monadnock Art x Tech and elected its board in early 2015. It had some help from Arts Alive! in Keene, who served as a fiscal sponsor until our non-profit status was secured. MAxT is now a registered 501c3 governed by a Board of Directors, with day to day operations managed by an Executive Director.

At the same time, they started to look for a physical location to call home. This is obviously a crucial decision for a makerspace. It determines what a space can do and how much it can do. Under the hood there are is a lot to think about in terms of operational budget. There are a lot of options to consider. It took about one year to go from idea to signing a lease on our first space over which time we considered many different options.