[PHOTOS] Realize Your Creative Ideas At Staten Island’s Makerspace | by NYU Local

By Caleb Savage

After metalworker and sculptor Scott Van Campen’s workshop on coastal Staten Island was flooded during Hurricane Sandy, Scott and his wife DB Lampman began to rebuild with a sense of resilience and with the desire to do something positive for their community. An opportunity arose in the form of a grant offered by the New York City Economic Development Corporation for a small business incubator on Staten Island: the couple submitted a proposal, inspired by the communal workshops they saw on a trip to Thomas Edison’s laboratories in New Jersey, and received some city funding to transform Scott’s workshop into a shared community space.

Makerspaces, hackerspaces, and fab labs are popping up left and right both in and out of New York. They’re a part of the growing maker movement, which encourages people to invent and create. Makers can often be seen nerding out over…