ABOUT
Our Mission
We're an art collective and maker space where creative people of all kinds can experiment, learn, and connect through hands-on creation.
What We Do
As a makerspace, we specialize in being a place for the creation of wearable art, costuming, slow fashion, and upcycling. We also embrace collage, textile art, soft sculpture, jewelry, props, puppetry, painting, drawing, DIY projects and whatever other mediums call to you (as long as they fit in through the studio doors of course!)
Our Space & Supplies
Our sunlit studio offers over 1,000sq ft of flexible workspace, pattern making tables, sewing machines + sergers (home and industrial!) as well as a library of free assorted fabrics, trim, notions and re-use materials.
For studio tools, we supply glue guns, scissors & assorted craft tools. You are always welcome to bring your own materials and tools as well.
Learn more about the studio here
Who Belongs Here
We welcome all ages and all levels of experience, from the novice to the super seasoned pro. We also welcome anyone that says “but, I’m not an artist”.
You don't need to be "good” at anything. You just need to show up with curiosity and see what happens, because truly- all humans are creators.
Come make things.
Come make friends.
Come make fun.
Our Values:
☻ Community & Collabs
Creative work is better when we do it together. This is a space for collaboration, sharing skills, making friends, and building real life connections.
✦ Creative Process
We embrace the messy middle of creativity. Mistakes, experiments, overcoming creative blocks, and "imperfect" work are all welcome here. Growth happens in the doing.
❋ Self Expression
We're here to help you discover and reconnect with your unique creative voice.
✿ Radical Reuse
We believe in reuse, reimagining, and upcycling materials as powerful acts of resistance. Repairing and creating things with your hands is a way to say f*ck you to fast fashion and mindless consumerism.
How to Join
WE BELIEVE
all humans are creators.
❋
creating is better than consuming.
❋
making things by hand
is good for the mind and heart.
❋
making is better
when we do it together.
❋
WHY NOW?
“In a world that's increasingly digital and disconnected in many ways, people are hungry for something real. Something human, something meaningful, authentic, messy.
We know we need to spend less time on screens, less time mindlessly consuming and more time with friends, learning new skills and making art with whatever we have. We need spaces where all of this can happen.
Make Fun Studio is an offering and an experiment. I know it will help make and our tiny corner of the world a little brighter .” - Kae Burke, Founder
The Backstory
2006 – The Dream
Back in the day, Kae Burke was gritty fashion student at FIT, living in a DIY dreamhouse aka a shabby Brooklyn basement called Boring Incorporated with her bestie collaborator Anya. They turned their large common space into a sewing studio. Around this era, Kae Burke had a vision: What if even more creative people could make things together—in a shared space, in community, instead of all alone in their solo studios?
2006 -The First Make Fun night
One cold December night, she opened the doors of the studio to friends and strangers for a craft night where people could make holiday gifts with their own hands instead of buying things. The energy was electric and the people were happy. So she kept hosting sessions every Tuesday night and called it Make Fun. Word spread, the community grew, and something special was born.
[read the full Make Fun article HERE]
2007 – House of Yes
Make Fun Studio became part of the very first House of Yes, which originally was a live/work/performance space that Kae co-founded with Anya. There, the Tuesday night studio magic continued with even more space, more machines, more light, more creative chaos and collaboration.
2008 – The Fire
On April 22nd, 2008, House of Yes burned and everything in Make Fun was destroyed along with it - but it wasn’t the end. House of Yes found a decrepit warehouse at 342 Maujer Street, and after a glorious DIY renovation, Make Fun had a new home on the second floor (Fun fact- this former location is right across the street from the new location!)
2008-2013 – 5 years of fun
Make Fun Studio leveled up and evolved into a creative powerhouse—a production studio, costume factory for House of Yes and the performance community in general, where ridiculously fabulous looks and props came to life. The studio continued hosting workshops, skill-shares, and fashion shows- building a community of makers.
2013 – Womp womp
5 years later, the lease expired and House of Yes was priced out. When HOY found new partners and a new home in Bushwick, the new plan was to reopen as a nightclub and theater space, and there simply wasn’t room for a costume studio space, and so Make Fun as a collective comunity studio went on hiatus. Until now.
2025 – Rediscovering
After 10+ years as the Creative Director of House of Yes, Kae had time to take a break and ponder - “what brings me joy and what does the world need right now?” She remembered the joy of making things for fun and teaching others at Make Fun and decided to bring it back- to dust off the concept and find a new space - bigger, brighter, better than ever. And so, in 2025, she signed a lease on a studio at 347 Maujer Street.
Make Fun was Kae's first experiment in what would become a thread throughout her life's work: building collaborative spaces, supporting artists, and creating experiences that unlock self-expression. Now, she's honored to bring this space back to life and discover what it wants to become in this new era.