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St. Louis Public Library Puts Finishing Touches On Plans For New Makerspace At Barr

St. Louis Public Radio | By Evie Hemphill
Published January 22, 2020 at 3:00 PM CST
St. Louis Public Library's Barr branch, at Jefferson and Lafayette avenues, was established in 1901. Soon, it will be home to a Creative Experience makerspace.
Evie Hemphill | St. Louis Public Radio
St. Louis Public Library's Barr branch, at Jefferson and Lafayette avenues, was established in 1901. Soon, it will be home to a Creative Experience makerspace.
St. Louis Public Library's Barr branch, at Jefferson and Lafayette avenues, was established in 1901. Soon, it will be home to a Creative Experience makerspace.
Credit Evie Hemphill | St. Louis Public Radio
St. Louis Public Library's Barr branch, at Jefferson and Lafayette avenues, was established in 1901. Soon, it will be home to a Creative Experience makerspace.

In some ways, the concept behind St. Louis Public Library’s Creative Experience makerspace, located at its downtown branch, sounds pretty simple: It’s a space dedicated to creating things. But as makers of all sorts of stuff know, it can be difficult to bring even the best ideas to fruition without the right tools.

That’s where Creative Experience comes in — providing studio-quality software and equipment to help bring many different kinds of projects to life.

Mary Meyer, at left, and Justin Struttmann joined Wednesday's broadcast.
Credit Evie Hemphill | St. Louis Public Radio
Mary Meyer, at left, and Justin Struttmann joined Wednesday's broadcast.

Now, SLPL is adding a second such makerspace to the library district, reinventing existing space at its Barr branch located at Jefferson and Lafayette avenues.

On Wednesday’s St. Louis on the Air, host Sarah Fenske talked with Mary Meyer, manager of digital library services at St. Louis Public Library, and with Justin Struttmann, SLPL’s chief operating officer, about the thinking behind this new space and what patrons can soon expect to see.

Listen to the conversation:

“St. Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is hosted by Sarah Fenske and produced by Alex Heuer, Emily Woodbury, Evie Hemphill and Lara Hamdan. The engineer is Aaron Doerr, and production assistance is provided by Charlie McDonald.

Send questions and comments about this story to feedback@stlpublicradio.org.

Copyright 2021 St. Louis Public Radio. To see more, visit St. Louis Public Radio.

Missouri News
Evie Hemphill
Evie Hemphill joined the St. Louis on the Air team in February 2018. After earning a bachelor’s degree in English literature in 2005, she started her career as a reporter for the Westminster Window in Colorado. Several years later she went on to pursue graduate work in creative writing at the University of Wyoming and moved to St. Louis upon earning an MFA in the spring of 2010. She worked as writer and editor for Washington University Libraries until 2014 and then spent several more years in public relations for the University of Missouri–St. Louis before making the shift to St. Louis Public Radio.
See stories by Evie Hemphill