Artisan’s Asylum

I love this place! Everyone here is eager to help you with building your circuit and getting to learn more about engineering, physics and applications of electronics! I highly suggest coming here if you want to pick up a new cool hobby. I built a nice musical pencil! Loads of fun!

I’ve been using the Artisans Asylum for a couple of years now as a day-​pass member. This place is a tremendous resource. They always seem to be progressing with more tools and better organization.
That said…
To the management: The one thing I am critical of is the new policy that day-​passes must be bought in minimum blocks of 5 days and they expire after 90 days. This «use them or lose them» policy seems counter-​intuitive. Someone like me who only needs to use the facility once every 4 – 5 months for a couple of hours gets screwed by this new policy. Like a gym wouldn’t you want your facility over-​subscribed and under-​utilized? You’ve got my money, why do you care how often I use it? «Making» me use the Asylum more often doesn’t create my need to use it.
My suggestion: either the day-​passes shouldn’t expire (as before) or let us purchase single day passes.

I had an abysmal experience here. The shops are barely maintained and the membership is not a community. The financial reports indicate that around 2% of the budget goes towards tooling but it is VERY unlikely that those reports are factual. The management is at the very least disinterested in managing and at worst a weird nepotistic clique. I personally had theft happen in the private spaces and asked for mediation after identifying the culprit, which was dealt with VERY poorly and unprofessionally by one of the members of the Board of Directors.
I wouldn’t recommend having anything to do with this place. If so, GOOD LUCK!

Artisan’s Asylum is a fantastic playground for makers! The facilities are terrific, with separate shops for woodworking, metalworking, electronics and robotics, jewelry, and more. I’ve taken all of the basic woodworking classes and have learned quite a bit. Highly recommended for anyone who is into creating things and meeting other like-​minded individuals!

I’ve taken three classes at the Asylum so far and I’ve been renting a studio space there for about three months. Five minutes into my tour, I knew I wanted to — and had to — join this community. I saw studios for robot-​builders next to silk-​screeners, a boat under construction, 3-​dimensional printers, wood-​workers, puppet-makers…it just keeps going. It’s like a zoo of creative humanity — a representative survey of human creativity confined in a one-​acre space in Somerville. I wanted to hang out with those people.
There are times when tools in the workshops have been broken and unusable, from what I’ve seen. That can be frustrating, as noted in some other reviews. But what should also be noted is that almost everything that happens there happens when a member starts a ball rolling. That goes for cleaning up the metal-​working room, upgrading the paint shop’s ventilation system, or starting a whole new shop (a set-​up for casting sculptures is in the works) — all of which happened in the last two months! It evolves based on the input and initiative of members.
In my short time there, everyone I’ve interacted with has been friendly, generous with sharing their time and expertise, and patient dealing with me and my rudimentary wood– and metal-​working skills.
If you’re looking for a place where everything’s running perfectly predictably at all times, I would recommend Disneyworld. If you want to find a place to work that has a lot of tools you probably can’t justify buying or don’t have room for in your basement, and a space surrounded by talented tool users, this may be a good fit.

If you need to use it, break it, fix it, trash it, change it, mail — upgrade it, charge it, point it, zoom it, press it, Snap it, work it, quick — erase it… you get the idea… This is your place.
Almost anything and everything can be built here. If they can’t do it someone will know someone who does. They also teach a bunch of awesome classes so you can become one of those people who knows how to do things

It is a 40,000 square foot space of awesomeness — one of the largest hacker-​spaces /​maker-​spaces in the world. It is a mix of private studio spaces, and shops that have all the equipment that you ever wished you had in the garage, but couldn’t afford /​justify for the use you’d make of it. The ‘inmates’ are a bunch of people in all sorts of different fields, with tons of expert knowledge that they are willing to share. The range of projects that people are working on is astounding, from fine arts to heavy engineering, and everything in between…
Does it have it’s limitations and drawbacks, yes, but it is what it is… In response to some of the other reviews —
1. Yes the machines are often battered — they get a LOT of use and abuse — many are older, and were either donated or purchased for low cost — But where else do folks get access to equipment that normally is only found in professional shops?
2. Not all of our instructors are great, but course fees are FAR less than what you will see at any other formal schools — and negative reviews of instructors are listened to. Also while they get some compensation, the instructors are semi-​volunteers in that they are not ‘doing it for a living’ rather they are sharing their knowledge as professionals in what they are teaching.
3. A big point — 99% of the Asylum is run by VOLUNTEERS — there are only about THREE people that get a weekly paycheck. Most of everything from equipment repair and maintenance to cleaning and taking out the trash is done by volunteers.
4. With a tiny overworked staff, and a lot of volunteers, things sometimes take time, and sometimes ‘fall through the cracks’ If something is (not) happening that isn’t what it should be, you do need to work at escalating /​pushing for it. (The front desk volunteers can generally help tell you how best to do this — treat them kindly, buy them an occasional beer or pizza…)
In spirit of disclosure — I’m an ‘inmate’, rent a studio, and am a volunteer on lots of things, including the front desk…

Awesome place to be a member and have a space to geek out and work on different hobbies. Awful place to take classes and learn from teachers. I’ve taken at least three classes where the instructors were terrible. In one of the CNC classes the instructor never responded to any of my email requests to take an exam, thus I was never able to get certified on the CNC router; I wasted my money.
In general, very creative people. AA staff is generally helpful and try to organize community event to engage the mostly introverted members.
I would not recommend enrolling in classes.

Absolutely awesome place full of incredibly creative people. They offer tons of classes, from woodworking and screenprinting to TIG-​welding bicycle frames. They also offer a wide variety of services, and everyone there is incredibly helpful! What a great community space; we could use many more like it!

Kind of like a hackerspace. Lots of amazing classes — metalworking, sewing, robots, arduino, bike maintenance, hacking, jewelry making, glassblowing, machining, tool training, the list goes on. Get on their mailing list and you’ll be notified of upcoming classes and workshops!

These guys brought out speakers and hot chocolate and threw a dance party/​snowball fight/​snow art contest in Union Square during the Blizzard of ’13. Coolest thing I’ve seen in a long while…