Tiny Town event will help Spark showcase its makerspace
New London — Preparations are in full swing for the city’s first Tiny Town demonstration July 28-29, an event that will include education, music and food components and an overall Mongolian theme.
Tiny Town, which will consist of about a dozen do-it-yourself Tiny Houses under about 400 square feet set up as a mini village, will be the culmination of an educational program starting July 6, hosted by Spark Makerspace and taught by a Vermont build-and-design school called Yestermorrow. About four spaces are still available for people interested in learning to build Tiny Houses, a new trend in housing that is attractive particularly to millennials.
A highlight of the event will be the race for Tiny Town mayor, featuring candidates who will campaign based on platforms of fresh ideas and will be elected by contributions of $1 equalling one vote. Online interviews of the candidates will precede a vote.
“It’s going to be hilarious, just really fun,” said Hannah Gant, a founder of Spark Makerspace.
Tiny Town will be held at the intersection of Green and Golden streets from 4 to 11 p.m. July 28 and 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. July 29. Barbara Neff, the city event coordinator who also puts on Sailfest, will be in charge of the production, Gant said.
The event will allow Spark to showcase its makerspace on Golden Street, Gant said, while also highlighting its association with Yestermorrow, a nationally respected school that is piloting its first urban campus in New London. Tiny Town also will be the first test of Spark’s Cultivator Kitchen led by Robert Ramsay, owner of Montauk House restaurant, whose first participants will be selling food items at the event.
A meeting at Spark from 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday will introduce interested people to the Tiny Town event, focusing particularly on the food plans.
“Our goal isn’t so much business development as it is helping people get sparked,” Gant said.
“Our goal isn’t so much business development as it is helping people get sparked.” HANNAH GANT, A FOUNDER OF SPARK MAKERSPACE
The idea, she said, is to try something, see what the public reaction is, and then keep changing up until you get the right formula for success.
Tiny Town has gained financial support from the state Small Business Development Corp., Gant said. The event will include music from the Hartford Hot Several, a New Orleans-style jazz band, and Spark is renting 38 Green St. for the month of July so Mohegan Sun set designer Dave Lewis can work on the Mongolian theme for the village.
“I want it to seem whimsical and different,” Gant said.
Money raised during Tiny Town will be used to help support Thames River Innovation Place, an economic development organization spanning Groton and New London which is currently trying to raise $900,000 to match a state funding pledge of the same amount. Spark has been a key partner in the Innovation Place initiative that was one of five selected statewide for initial awards from the innovation booster CTNext.
In keeping with the idea of sparking new initiatives, Gant said people will be asked to submit their ideas for putting a business in a vacant storefront with the idea of actually making that happen, in New London and perhaps Groton as well.
“It’s a lean startup approach,” Gant said.