ABSTRACT
Maker activities are already popular in fabrication spaces, children’s museums, science centers, community organizations, and maker fairs. Connected Messages is a community-oriented maker activity based out of public library branches in Philadelphia, where murals are an existing part of the local art culture and the joint construction of interactive murals can create opportunities for community-relevant Making. This chapter describes the motivation and design rationale for the Connected Messages project, technical background for how this project was executed, and how mural-making took different forms at different library branches. As discussed, this is an example of a library-based experience that can build on the local resources and individual connections to sources of local pride and personal concern.
