CHECKING IN:
UPDATES ON PREVIOUSLY-FUNDED PROJECTS by Kathy Harrison
Some MDBF-supported projects take more time to come to fruition—we caught up with several organizations.
Durham Library Foundation With the untimely death of our long-time trustee and friend, James D.B.T. Semans in December 2018, the board and staff searched for a fitting tribute to mark his 26 years of service. “Transformation Main,” the complete renovation and expansion of the Durham Library’s primary campus, provided the perfect opportunity. In recognition of Mr. Semans’ love of Durham, his respect for buildings both old and new, and his fascination with technology, the Biddle Foundation and the Jenny Lillian Semans Koortbojian Trust named the Innovation/Maker Lab in his honor. While available for all ages, the Innovation/Maker Lab is geared towards older makers, from older teens to seniors. When the library can safely return to inperson programming, the Innovation Lab will provide space to foster innovation and the entrepreneurial spirit, helping people from ideation to creation and prototyping. The space will also have open lab hours and workshops to learn how to use the STEAM equipment. Planned programs will range from introduction to 3D printing and design on opensource operating systems, to crafting, to coding, and more.
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Click! Photography Festival Click! Photography is a month-long photography festival with curated exhibits and programming for all levels of photographic art. MDBF’s grant in September 2019 supported an expansion of the Programming Innovations for Click! (PIC) artist grants for innovative works to be exhibited during the 2020 festival. Click! was able to convert to a virtual festival easily, with programming addressing current issues such as racial justice and the COVID-19 pandemic. Six Feet Photography, Big Backyard, and Big Camera: Postcards for the Pandemic were the three projects selected for the 2020 virtual festival. The pop-up Camera Obscura event is shown above.
