VCUarts Qatar steps up with new resource for creatives, TinkerLab

The TinkerLab offers a variety of tools that may not be currently available or accessible at the university, or elsewhere, for creatives.

Artists, designers and innovators from across the local education sector and the wider community now have one more resource to turn to when inspiration strikes them – the TinkerLab, a new shared space at Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts in Qatar (VCUarts Qatar), a Qatar Foundation partner university. Situated in an easily accessible location – in the university’s popular Material Library, just off the entrance to the main university building – the TinkerLab offers a variety of tools that may not be currently available or accessible at the university, or elsewhere, for creatives. Aside from augmenting the Material Library’s scope, the fact that the TinkerLab is open – by appointment – to the general public in addition to VCUarts Qatar’s students, staff and faculty, further boosts the art and design university’s commitment to promote hands-on engagement, exploration and experimentation in creative practices among the local community, a press statement notes. The inventory of tools and equipment supports work ranging from detailed, delicate work to more elaborate, experimental work.  Examples of tools and equipment include, but are not limited to, handheld digital microscopes, a sewing machine, a desktop vacuum former, as well as a wide variety of cutting blades, precision tools, modeling tools, etc. Additionally, equipment for papermaking, dyeing and biomaterial explorations will also be available to experiment with.