Interview: Ursula Davies, MD of Makerversity

- by Ali Gitlow

After receiving a generous grant from Arts Council England and Innovate UK via their Arts and Technology Pilot Programme, the team behind Makerversity has just launched a new initiative called MVWorks. They deliberately chose to keep the brief quite open, offering workspace, a coach (or producer) and a chunk of cash to any ambitious creatives who wanted to apply, the only stipulation being that they must use technology as part of their practice. Nine participants made up of both individuals and groups have been chosen and announced this week, and they are indeed a mixed bag. A diverse panel of experts, ranging from the director of Abandon Normal Devices to the co-owner of iconic record shop Rough Trade, was tapped to make the final selection (alongside the heads of Makerversity). Some of the lucky few include Lawrence Lek, who will be creating a video game focused on the tricky state of London’s housing market, Tom Armitage, who will be working on a music box called Twinklr that has both analogue and digital characteristics, and Liz Ciokajlo, a concept development footwear designer who will look at foot skin to see how it can affect the design of 3D printed shoes. 

All of this innovation needs some structure, and Ursula Davies is the woman providing it. As Managing Director of Makerversity, she is responsible for overseeing operations and making the vision real, as well as setting up MVWorks. On the eve of its launch, we spoke to her about the triumphs and challenges of starting such a far-reaching a programme:

I worked as a funder for the Design Council for a long time and ran quite formal funding programs for them. I also got very exposed to design thinking and design methods, as well as the different applications of design beyond just producing beautiful things. I’d funded Makerversity through a program I worked on there. Makerversity was set up and grew into a thing with all these people in it and they wanted someone to take over the running of it. The business is two years old now and we’re actively looking to expand and open a new site in the next year. It’s an exciting time. Also, launching MVWorks is a big deal for us.

It was a great meeting of us as a business thinking about how we can support people and their businesses to do good work and feeling like there were lots of different ways in which that can play out. That can mean both creative and commercial success. It’s a world I used to be much closer to, so it was interesting for us knowing who funders are and the sorts of things they want to support and trying to think about how we can do something on our terms that will tick their boxes but also gives us a chance to experiment and bring some new people into the space as well. 

I think we had a really clear sense of the point of view in it when we launched the idea. We run a space focused around making, which is this very broad term that cuts across loads of disciplines. We don’t care about what someone’s background is or whether they’re a fine artist or a designer or a technologist or an entrepreneur or are self-taught. We care about people doing good work and making a good living from it. In some ways that was a really obvious lens for us to put on it because it’s what we do anyway, day-to-day. We don’t care about the categories, labels and divisions. We have lots of people in the existing community at Makerversity that defy all of those things. We felt really sure that is what we wanted to do, but it felt quite nerve-wracking putting out something that is that open. A lot of people want it to be more defined than that. We definitely put the onus on the applicants. It’s quite hard to apply for, and I’m quite conscious of that. I also feel like the people it’s the right fit for have got that and have responded to it.  

It’s being both creative and entrepreneurial and having the wherewithal to be like, ‘Okay, I could go seek public funding, I could set up a startup, I could run a Kickstarter.’ And being brave and up for doing any of those things if they’ll help you do what you want to do. But also being ambitious. It needs to be more than, ‘I just want to make beautiful objects and I want to find a way of doing that which allows me to sustain that.’ It’s more like, well, where could that go? What would be the biggest, most amazing version of that and what could you do to try and get there? What you do doesn’t really matter, but the trying part is important. 

We’re really excited about the mix of people. They’re all pretty independent and have interesting ideas. There are some people who are producing an artwork, which raises different sets of questions. The art people are actually very make-y, so a lot of what they’re doing is about fabricating and learning about physical making which is really interesting for us as Makerversity. There’s more product-based stuff that’s quite experimental. And that’s interesting, thinking about Makerversity more generally – what is the path that people go through; what kinds of support do they need? And not just in terms of money and getting a business coach, but as a lone creative entrepreneur, what does that feel like and how do you navigate that journey?

They need to be able to show tangible progress, but that could take different forms. In applying, we’re like, ‘Think about what you’ve done, think about where you want to get to and think a thing you could do now that would help you get there.’ That’s probably going to involve pushing yourself, taking some risks and doing new stuff. I’m thinking about the people we have selected – for most people that does take the form of a product or a piece of work or an installation. We’re less interested in defining a set amount of progress achieved by a certain date and more interested in saying, ‘We’ll give you the money and the challenge for you is to make that as useful as possible.’