September 22, 2022 – John F. Kennedy High School honors art students saw where the adults in their community go to express their creativity during a field trip to MIXXER on Thursday afternoon.
MIXXER is a community makerspace that allows members to come in whenever they want and use the facilities to develop a variety of projects. They have the room and hardware to accommodate metal working, wood working, 3D printing, gardening, studio art, and much more. The flexibility of the space means that not only can artists of all stripes find what they need at MIXXER, they also have unparalleled opportunities for collaboration.
“We found that we had a lot of people from very different backgrounds,” Executive Director Alan Shelton said of the founding of MIXXER. “They’re able to come together to do things that nobody has done before.”
During the field trip, students got to tour the facility and see all of the resources they would have access to if they chose to visit on their own time. Afterwards, they got to work soft clay blocks with designs that they’ve been drawing in their classes. MIXXER has access to media that even honors art students don’t usually get to spend much time with, so their minds were filled with possibilities for what they could make one day if they become members.
“I’d come back for the metal shop,” said Brayhan Diaz-Martinez. ‘I want to do some blacksmithing.”
Education is a lifelong process, and Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools is in the business of developing lifelong learners. Community partners like MIXXER show students that whatever subjects spark their passions while they’re in school, there’s somewhere they can go to keep learning more even once they graduate. If they look closely enough, they can find resources that are instrumental to their 
education and long-term success right in the middle of their own hometown.
“It gets them out of the classroom and into the real world,” said Visual Art Teacher Dr. Kelly Ann Kotowski-Manns. “Now they know what’s in their own city and that they can tap into it after they graduate.”
