Market Street Media Foundry evolves into makebreak

Scott Kubie, Cat Rocketship and the others behind Market Street Media Foundry (MSMF) announced today that they were evolving their vision and are now makebreak.

Scott Kubie, Cat Rocketship and the others behind Market Street Media Foundry (MSMF) announced today that they were evolving their vision and are now makebreak. This new direction includes moving their popular event programming, like Market Day, Your Art Sucks, Drink and Draw, and Lo-Fi Fun Night, to the Impromptu Studio location at 300 SW 5th Street and leaving behind the old MSMF location, name, and studio space for artists in the East Village.

Announcement from makebreak

Hello friends.

It’s time for us to innovate again! The people behind Market Street Media Foundry are excited to announce the launch of makebreak. makebreak provides a platform to make, break, experiment, invent, test, hack, design, challenge, push boundaries, make a mess, share, critique, learn and teach. It’s a community of people sharing ideas, hosting events and creating media. The goal is to help each other make, break and grow creatively.

Read the full announcement

Earlier this afternoon, Scott answered a few questions about the plans for makebreak. Photo of Scott below is from our interview with him last October.

Silicon Prairie News: Where did the idea come from to change from the physical MSMF space to the makebreak platform?

Scott Kubie: It’s a natural evolution. We’re more passionate about output than space. Des Moines is full of space. Studios are a dime a dozen. Drive around downtown, anywhere in Des Moines, really, and it’s all “for lease” signs. We’re not interested in being landlords or running art apartments. People got stuck on the “space” idea in relation to MSMF and it was defining the brand for us. makebreak is a new attitude, new place, new people, and a new way to bring ideas to the forefront and push creative boundaries in our community. It’s also a chance to break away from Art with a capital A – don’t get us wrong, we love art, but it’s an intimidating concept to some. People who didn’t think of themselves as “Fine Artists” were nervous about engaging in our programming. I’m going to try not to even use the word from now on.

SPN: The decision to evolve from your original idea this dramatically probably wasn’t easy, is there anything you learned from the experience that you’d like to pass on to other innovators?

Scott: Platitude of the day: “when people start to imitate, it’s time to innovate.” Don’t be afraid to throw things away. If something doesn’t work, if someone is throwing up pale imitations of what you’re doing, start running faster, get further ahead. Don’t be afraid to wear your heart on your sleeve and rock out with [it all] out. Things didn’t work when we were timid, when we coached our language, when we pulled back. The harder we pushed the more successful we were. That’s the entire attitude now.

SPN: Can you give us a sneak peak of any new programming you’re planning to launch in this new iteration?

Scott: “Critical.” We’re passionate about the idea of critical engagement – with everything. The movies you watch, the books you read, the things your politicians are saying, the art you see on a gallery wall, the words on a website, the thoughts in your head. Creativity without criticism is generally masturbatory. We’ll be doing more programming that celebrates critical thinking in regards to creative output. People can check their ego-stroking and unabashed back-patting at the door when they come to our events.

This story is part of the AIM Archive

This story is part of the AIM Institute Archive on Silicon Prairie News. AIM gifted SPN to the Nebraska Journalism Trust in January 2023. Learn more about SPN’s origin »

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