Social Investment: Edinburgh Open Workshop
Edinburgh Open Workshop is a creative maker space offering affordable, flexible, Pay-As-You-Go membership access to workshop machinery, tools, fabrication space and structured creative learning programs and training. Their purpose is to bring affordable resources and learning to those who choose to engage with making and creativity.
They run tiered programs designed to suit the community, to house, teach and provide support. This is underpinned by an enterprise strand to finance the delivery of their social mission.
Background
Edinburgh Open Workshop began trading in July 2018 as a not for profit social enterprise designed to support and advocate for the creative sector. All profit is reinvested for equipment maintenance, research and investment, the creation and improvement of workspaces and the research and development of courses, workshops and training for members and for the public. They are the only facility of this kind and scale in Edinburgh, and form an integral part of the growing network of Scottish Makerspaces.
Edinburgh Open Workshop offers flexible workshop space, and importantly the accompanying tools and machinery, which can be made to work for a variety of creative disciplines and practice.
Development
In 2020, they were fully volunteer run, with one contractor and almost entirely dependent on grant funding. In only three years since, they have become fully income supported, with a core staff of four and two regular freelancers. They have gone from a membership of 30 to 300. They have gone from no training beyond inductions to a fully-fledged tiered course program. And they have seen course participants establish themselves as makers in Edinburgh.
Edinburgh Open Workshop is more than a work space. People make connections, grow in confidence, share ideas and make things happen. Edinburgh Open Workshop has seen a 28% increase in membership each year for the last 3 years.
Spaces and machinery available to hire include:
- Woodworking and metalwork machinery
- 3D Design & cutting machines
- Fabrication bays and welding bays
- Paint floor
- Drying room
- Textiles machinery and textile cutting table
Foundation Scotland support
Through consistent interaction and engagement with their creative community, Edinburgh Open Workshop continuously grows and adapts their workshop equipment, tools and space, their learning program and its structure, and their outreach to meet growing demand. To help support this growth and expansion, in June of this year, they received £50,000 of social investment from Foundation Scotland to take on the neighbouring warehouse, increasing their Leith trading premises from 10,000 sq ft to 17,000 sq ft.
Foundation Scotland’s investment will help meet the costs incurred in the prep work and fit-out of the next-door leasehold premises. This will deliver increased dedicated resident maker bays, more storage containers to allow larger projects to be kept on site while in progress, and a community event space and reception with new signage.
A few Impact highlights to date:
- One member who moved through the course funnel, enrolled on the Chippendale furniture making course.
- Resident Makers have moved on because they could afford to scale their businesses out of town.
- Edinburgh Open Workshop Bursary & Support program has helped 30 people afford their places on a course or workshop through scholarship, concession rate, or a supportive payment plan.
- Edinburgh Open Workshop courses and workshops have tripled in their types of courses, sessions offered, and number of participants with a consistent waitlist for all courses.
- Partnerships with North Edinburgh Arts, Artlink, Whale Arts, and Jupiter Artland have taken learning programs outside of workshop doors to engage with emerging makers of every age and ability.
- Edinburgh Open Workshop was fully income supported in FYE 2023 and closed the year with a small surplus.