New Times / Art

If you can dream it ...

BY ANNA WELTNER

Hey, all you tinkerers, hobbyists, builders, dreamers, schemers, techies, and crafty mamas! Don’t you ever wish you could go to back to your elementary school science fair without it being super weird, seeing as how you’re an adult now and stuff? Well, there’s hope, and it’s called the San Luis Obispo Mini Maker Faire.

A family-friendly celebration of making things (and taking things apart), this inaugural event will follow in the footsteps of the Maker Faire, an event started by Make magazine and first held in San Mateo in 2005. While its parent event draws more than 100,000 visitors and has been replicated all over the world, the SLO Mini Maker Faire will be a smaller, community-minded gathering in the spirit of DIY creativity.

The event doesn’t happen until Saturday, May 11 (in the Mission Plaza), so why am I telling you about it right now? Because the “Call for Makers” closes Saturday, March 9. All makers, performers, or presenters interested in participating in the event can complete a simple application at makerfaireslo.wordpress.com. An applicant can be an individual or a group. According to press materials, suggested entries include “robotics, electronics, arts and crafts, unusual toys or machines, green tech, sustainability, energy efficiency, bicycles, puppets, toys, projects using repurposed materials, and how to fix things or take them apart.”

You hear that, tinkerers of SLO? It’s time to unveil that energy-efficient, sustainable, bicycle-riding, unusual toy robot you’ve been toiling away on all these years. Visit the SLO Mini Maker Faire website, shoot ’em an e-mail at makerfaireslo@gmail.com, check them out on Facebook (Facebook.com/SLOMakerFaire) and Google+ (goo.gle/HrqR2) or follow the Faire on Twitter (@slomakerfaire) for up-to-date information.

The event is scheduled for Saturday, May 11, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Mission Plaza, and is hosted by the San Luis Obispo Museum of Art.