The Greatest Show (& Tell) on Earth will be held Sept. 25-26 

Maker Faire® Milwaukee, hosted by Gearbox Labs, returns to Milwaukee after a brief pandemic-induced hiatus. The always-popular Faire will be held Sept. 25-26, 2021 at Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE), which is the presenting sponsor of the event.   

Maker Faire is a gathering of fascinating, curious people who enjoy learning and who love sharing what they can do. From engineers to artists to scientists to crafters, Maker Faire is a venue for these “makers” to show hobbies, experiments and projects.    

The Faire kicks off Friday, Sept. 24 with virtual Education Day ("Meet the Makers") programs reserved for middle and high school students, young adults and educators. The Faire is free and open to the public on Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 25-26. Organizers call it the Greatest Show (& Tell) on Earth—a family-friendly showcase of invention, creativity and resourcefulness, and it will feature more than 100 makers. Get your tickets in advance!

Increasing awareness about the importance of STEM skills and helping communities redefine education and how we prepare young people for living, working and learning in the future are central to Maker Faire’s mission. Gearbox Labs, a Wisconsin-based educational nonprofit, has taken over the Faire’s license, and the event’s long-time producers are volunteering their time to organize the activities and programs that made Milwaukee’s Faire one of the biggest in the nation in past years.   

The relevance of the Maker Movement is growing, as communities address the impact of the pandemic and the need for equity in the nation’s education systems. The Maker Movement was also in the spotlight at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, as makers in Milwaukee and other communities around the world stepped in to prototype, manufacture and distribute critically needed personal protective equipment to hospitals and frontline workers. The Forbes 2020 Technology Awards recognized makers as the year's Most Disruptive Innovators for this effort. Faire organizers will work with the Milwaukee Makerspace, UWM Prototyping Center and others in the area that contributed PPE designs, 3D printing capabilities and other manufacturing support to share examples of this work.  

In addition to serving as a destination for families, educators, employers and others, Maker Faire Milwaukee has also been a hub for hobbyists, commercial makers and small-batch manufacturers. Many of these makers have been hit hard by the pandemic and the Faire will subsidize exhibit fees for eligible exhibitors as a show of support for the local maker community.  

“We are excited to bring Maker Faire Milwaukee to the MSOE campus this fall,” said MSOE President John Walz, Ph.D. “Our students, faculty and staff are a community of learners. Personalized, experiential learning is at the heart of our approach to education. Events like the Faire align with our mission and help us expand our STEM outreach efforts among K-12 students.”

About Gearbox Labs
Gearbox Labs, Inc. was founded in 2019 by Peter Haydock of Hingham WI, USA and Isabel Mendiola of Monterrey, Mexico, and publishes STEAM education (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math resources for K-12 students and educators, informal learning organizations and self-directed student and adult learners.  Gearbox Labs also provides professional development programs to schools, school districts to increase STEAM learning and teaching capacity and skills, residency programs and a growing catalog of online courses. A nonprofit member of the Milwaukee Tech Hub Coalition and the Milwaukee K-12 Computing Alliance, Gearbox Labs is based in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Their curriculum has been adopted by schools in 34 states and 24 countries around the world.  

About MSOE
Milwaukee School of Engineering is the university of choice for those seeking an inclusive community of experiential learners driven to solve the complex challenges of today and tomorrow. The independent, non-profit university has about 2,700 students and was founded in 1903. MSOE offers bachelor’s and master’s degrees in engineering, business and nursing. Faculty are student-focused experts who bring real-world experience into the classroom. This approach to learning makes students ready now as well as prepared for the future. Longstanding partnerships with business and industry leaders enable students to learn alongside professional mentors, and challenge them to go beyond what’s possible. MSOE graduates are leaders of character, responsible professionals, passionate learners and value creators.  

About Maker Faire
Maker Faire is the Greatest Show (and Tell) on Earth—a family-friendly showcase of invention, creativity and resourcefulness, and a celebration of the Maker Movement. It’s a place where people show what they are making, and share what they are learning. Makers range from tech enthusiasts to crafters to homesteaders to scientists to garage tinkerers. They are of all ages and backgrounds. The aim of Maker Faire is to entertain, inform, connect and grow this community.

The original Maker Faire event was held in San Mateo, CA and in 2019 celebrated its 14th annual show with some 900+ makers and 90,000 people in attendance. World Maker Faire New York, the other flagship event, has grown in five years to 750+ makers and 80,000 attendees. Forty other larger scale Maker Faires occur in cities around the world—Detroit, Milwaukee, Berlin, Paris, Rome, Tokyo, and Shenzhen to name a few—and over 150 community-driven, independently organized Mini Maker Faires are now being produced around the United States and the world.

About Make: Magazine:

Make: is the first magazine devoted entirely to Do-It-Yourself (DIY) technology projects. Make: unites, inspires, informs, and entertains a growing community of resourceful people who undertake amazing projects in their backyards, basements, and garages. Make: celebrates your right to tweak, hack, and bend any technology to your will.  Besides the magazine and the faire, Make is:

• a vital online stream of news and projects, blog.makezine.com;
• a retail outlet for kits and books, the Maker Shed;
• a steady stream of fun and instruction via our YouTube channel;
• Make: Projects, a library of projects with step-by-step instructions
• a publisher of best-in-category titles via Make: Books, including introductions to electronics, Raspberry Pi, 3D printing, Arduino and more.