The Art of Tinkering: Meet 150+ Makers Working at the Intersection of Art, Science & Technology

As co directors of the Tinkering Studio, Karen Wilkinson and Mike Petrich see their roles at the Exploratorium as advocates for making as a way of knowing. They believe deeply in studio pedagogy and the ability that we all have to think with our hands, and are curious about how people develop personal and unique understandings of the world for themselves. As undergraduates, both attended the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, where Mike studied fine arts, filmmaking, and photography and Karen focused on environmental design. Before coming to the Exploratorium, they pursued graduate studies in education and technology at Harvard and MIT. Today, after more than twenty years working as a team to integrate science, art, and technology into curriculum for both in-school and out-of-school learning environments, they foster and facilitate informal learning spaces for making and tinkering, offering people a chance to connect to their own learning in a deeply personal way. They’ve worked with audiences as diverse as museum visitors, primary school students, Tibetan monks, prison inmates, and graduate school researchers, and are both happy to call the Tinkering Studio home, where they are able to work with a delightfully quirky group of artists, educators, and innovators. The Exploratorium—San Francisco’s renowned museum of science, art, and human perception—is dedicated to changing the way the world learns. Within the Exploratorium, the Tinkering Studio is a workshop in which science and technology become powerful tools for personal expression, and where visitors gather to participate in hands-on, mind-expanding activities and demonstrations.