Coler Portraits

SkillShare Videos is a growing collection of short videos celebrating the exchange of knowledge, skills and making across communities. Each one features a person sharing a skill they care about, from a graduate student demonstrating a digital fabrication tool to a nursing home resident at Coler sharing hand knitting and a deep understanding of pattern and structure.

The videos work two ways: as conversation starters when residents, students and staff meet, and as a living record of the knowledge people carry with them. The still here comes from one of the sessions, with residents and the MakerLAB team talking around a laptop.

The making here is mostly filming and editing rather than fabrication. Short, single-skill clips are likely what keeps the series easy to add to: one person, one skill, a few minutes each.

Tip: record where the skill naturally happens and let the person teach in their own words; the conversation that follows is as much the point as the video.

Partner: NYC Health + Hospitals/Coler