open workshops

Open workshops are communityspaces of craftsmanship, digital fabrication and technologies that you can use and help to shape. Common value is the idea of sharing knowledge, tools and machines, technology, materials and space. Open workshops are accesable for anyone who wants to be active in handicrafts or artistic work - young and old, amateurs and (semi-)professionals, artists, hobbyists, makers and tinkerers. Open workshops often originate from private initiatives, sometimes they are part of cultural-, community- or youth- centres, more rarely of companies. While some have decades of experience, others are still „in progress“.

The concept of openness is a characteristic and distinguishing feature of open workshops. But what does openness mean? This is defined by the Openness Index developed by the members of the Open Workshops Association.

While the Openness Index describes what Open Workshops is all about, the self-image describes the vision in which Open Workshops is embedded. Where do we want to go with the workshops, and what values and themes are we pursuing? The self-conception provides answers to these questions.

Want to find out more? "Komm rein!", the brochure of the Association of Open Workshops (Verbund Offener Werkstätten e.V.), offers deeper insight into the variety of workshop-opportunities- view and order it free of charge here.