Community makerspace returns

For those in the know, Rise Up’s free community art studio isn’t the newest addition to Wausau’s creative scene, but with a new downtown location, it’s back and ready to serve more artists than ever.

The studio was formerly housed underneath Whitewater Music Hall, but after its closure in February, Rise Up was forced to find a new home for its makerspace.

“We were originally under Whitewater Music Hall, so we started kinda slowly ramping up the community makerspace in 2023. And that was invite-only,” said Jacquelyn Tolksdorf, program coordinator of Rise Up Central Wisconsin, a nonprofit dedicated to healing, transforming and inspiring the community through art.

The organization is behind some of the murals around the community, which were painted by community volunteers using a paint-by-numbers technique. In the studio’s pilot days, these volunteers made up most of its patrons until last September, when it was fully opened to the public.

“We were bursting at the seams,” said Tolksdorf. Between a wide assortment of donated materials and increasing community demand, there simply wasn’t enough space in the former studio to serve as many artists as they hoped.

“We saw some gaps in the community of expensive art classes and a kind of flip flop in Wausau’s average income and people’s want to take art classes… and not being able to afford it,” Tolksdorf explained.

So with the loss of their former space came an opportunity to expand.

“We’re a very grassroots nonprofit, so when we started to look for commercial spaces, they were very out of our price range.”

Co-founder and former President Christy Keele offered the break Rise Up needed. As her family was interested in purchasing the N Third St. property the studio now calls home, she stepped down from her position as president and offered Rise Up a space for discounted rent.

Located at 622 N Third St., the new studio is 10 times larger than the previous one. As a result, Rise Up can now serve a wider array of creatives, including photographers — thanks to a donation of backgrounds and lighting equipment by photographer Emily Voss of VOSStudios, who formerly called the space home — and quilters.

The space is open to artists of any medium and skill level, whether they’re professional artists who can’t yet afford their own space while they build their portfolios, teenagers interested in learning how to sew or families looking for a craft project.

“You kind of go nuts in the options of what people can do,” said Tolksdorf. This is due in large part to the number and variety of materials donated by community members — everything from professional-grade materials to machinery to “junk drawers.”

“We’ve never had empty shelves yet because we’ve had so many people donate this or that,” Tolksdorf explained. “People get excited about bringing in their junk drawer stuff, because you can make anything with that.”

As the future of art grants becomes more uncertain, Rise Up will need that community support more than ever. Presently, they’re looking for volunteers willing to teach people how to sew, and there will soon be options to rent the space out to community members by the hour in order to help cover the cost of rent.

Rise Up held the new space’s ribbon-cutting ceremony on May 17. Currently, the organization is working on establishing updated hours for the space. Tolksdorf said that she expects those hours to be announced in the near future and that those interested in keeping up can keep an eye on the organization’s Facebook page.

“Being downtown, we really want to have the makerspacespace not just available to the community, but we want to see more foot traffic coming to the local businesses that are next to us,” said Tolksdorf. Current discussions about hours revolve around how to most effectively uplift neighbors while keeping within Rise Up’s own limitations as a nonprofit.Rise Up is a grassroots nonprofit and relies primarily on community contributions to stay afloat. If you’re interested in supporting Rise Up’s mission and growth, you can donate online at https://riseupart.org/donate-to-our-operations. For more information on Rise Up and their past, ongoing or future projects, visit https://riseupart.org or follow them on Facebook.