BenchSpace is an inclusive and creative community dedicated to sharing the joy of working with your hands.
The BenchSpace community workshop, run by the BenschSpace Charitable Trust, is a welcoming and well-equipped space where members learn, and share their skills and knowledge. BenchSpace provides space and equipment for people at all levels to practice their craft, learn from those with more experience, or share their expertise with others.
Brent Gerrard reports on Oliver Dickie's presentation on 3 May.
Oliver is a lawyer whose interest in working with his hands was driven from him and his partner buying their first home and getting stuck into renovations - as many of us do! During the process, he would be working away in the evenings in his garage and passers-by would stop and have a chat while he was chopping 4x2 lengths of wood and started making various items of furniture for their home. He got the sense that many people would enjoy doing this type of work and working with their hands - if they had somewhere to do it.After finding some kindred spirits, Oliver and team put together a strategy and plan to open a space where people in the community could come together to work with wood. They were successful with a couple of rounds of funding, initially by Wellington City Council, and have been provided a space in the bottom of the WCC flats at the bottom of Brooklyn Hill with the proviso that they make it available to residents.
So far they have a good number of donated non-powered tools and are looking for the next round of funding to bring in some powered tools.
The management committee and trust members are a diverse group and they welcome diversity of people using the BenchSpace. They differ from Menzshedz in that they are looking to provide training in woodworking skills so that they can make a variety of items from furniture, to musical instruments - some of extremely high quality.
If you would like to join or support BenchSpace, their website is www.benchspace.nz