Creative Combustion
‘Maker spaces’ give students room to
explore artistic hobbies
Creative Combustion
‘Maker spaces’ give students room to explore artistic hobbies
It is after midnight at Emory, and the empty campus has settled into its evening slumber. Most lights in the buildings have been switched off. All is quiet.
Except for the thunderous sounds of rock ‘n’ roll filling the basement of the Schwartz Center for Performing Arts, home to the Music Den.
Inside, student rock band Arbre Day is practicing for an upcoming show. It may be two in the morning, but drummer Shane Donnelly is wide awake, hitting the snare with such intensity its rhythms can be heard through the walls.
The Music Den — open 24 hours with a student ID — is stocked with electric and acoustic guitars, a bass guitar, amplifiers, a drum kit, microphones, a sound mixing booth and all the accoutrements necessary for a full Arbre Day practice.
It is one of three “maker spaces” sponsored by Emory Arts, each designed for students to pursue their creative hobbies outside the classroom. The ArtsLab, located in Cox Hall, was the first to open in 2022. The Music Den opened in January 2025, and the Mini Studio, a dance space in the basement of the Schwartz Center, followed later that fall. The rooms are open to all students and can be reserved online.
Arbre Day found their musical identity in the Music Den, which offered free and easy access to equipment, as well as a suitable space to gather and play.
“One of the great things about it is that it’s secluded from the rest of campus,” says Donnelly, a sophomore international relations major from Atlanta. “It can really insulate you from the noise, metaphorically and actually. We’ve all got our school commitments and things going on outside of the room. But once you’re in the room, it’s all music. That’s when you can let your creative self go.”
Like Donnelly, most students who use these rooms aren’t studying music, dance or art.
Maggie Beker, assistant director of student programs for Emory Arts, says students are simply looking for a creative outlet, away from their coursework. She calls the rooms “essential, creative third-spaces.”
“People forget that the college experience is holistic,” Beker says. “Yes, you come here to major or minor in something, but you also come to live here. There are so many hours outside of class and homework that are just being a person. These students are trying out hobbies, and that’s what college is for: trying new things.”
The Music Den
Two years ago, before he first stepped foot in the Music Den, Donnelly had hardly ever played the drums.
He had some minor percussion experience in high school, but nothing that would prepare him for being part of a rock band. He always loved music, though — especially the Pixies and Smashing Pumpkins.
Donnelly first started booking the Music Den alone, just to teach himself the instrument, “to build up my balance and sense of rhythm,” he says.
Then he received a text in the Emory Musician’s Network group message. Andrew Li, who graduated in 2025, was starting a band and looking for a drummer. Donnelly answered the call.
Within a few weeks, Arbre Day was born. The band’s name draws on the French spelling for “arbor,” inspired by the fact that Donelly and sophomore lead singer Cami Yanes both speak the language.
Donnelly and Yanes edit a newly recorded track with the Music Den's equipment.
Donnelly and Yanes edit a newly recorded track with the Music Den's equipment.
The trio uses the Music Den for weekly practices, where they not only write and play their songs, but socialize, too. The room has become so popular that sometimes the band has to book sessions deep into the night, when the rest of campus is asleep.
In these late hours, Donnelly says a kind of creative delirium sets in — a mood that has produced some of his most meaningful Emory experiences.
“Some of our best songs and ideas have developed in that environment, when we stayed up way past our booking because no one else reserved it that late,” he says. “You get so far into a state of playing and coming up with ideas that your subconscious comes out.”
Inspired by the sounds of ’90s rock, Arbre Day now plays shows on and off campus. Most recently, they performed at the Emory Musician’s Network Battle of the Bands, held at RailRoad Earth ATL, an artist’s collective in Emory Village.
Between shows, they return to the Music Den to hone their craft and write songs. They’re currently putting the finishing touches on a new album, recorded entirely in the Music Den.
“It’s one of the best parts of my time at Emory so far,” Donnelly says of the room. “It has been the location for so many big memories and big moments. The social and emotional benefit that space has brought me, the sense of mental well-being, it’s really important.”
And it’s the only place on campus where he can go at any hour to play the drums, as loud as he wants.
“You just become a vessel for the music,” he says. “I feel like there’s nothing else in the world when I’m playing drums.”
ArtsLab
The ArtsLab, Beker says, was the original prototype for Emory’s maker spaces. Its popularity inspired her to develop the Music Den and the Mini Studio.
“I had been asking students what the holes were in their campus experience,” Beker says of conversations before the ArtsLab formed. “So many of them were interested in casually doing visual arts, and not in a class. They had hobbies from home, like painting or knitting.”
Rizky Etika, a 2020 Emory graduate and the Rosemary Magee Arts Fellow at the time, suggested an open studio space, fully stocked with supplies so students could come in and create at their own whims.
“The best part about it is that it’s free,” Beker explains. “We don’t guarantee what materials we’ll have at any given time, but that’s part of why it’s entertaining. The creative flow for students is that they come in and see what’s in the space for them to use, and it’s different from week to week. It lives and breathes.”
Chloe Bujold, a junior neuroscience major, uses the ArtsLab to develop pieces for the Fashion Design Studio, an Emory student club.
Bujold, who is the group’s co-president, started sewing in third grade and says the practice is one of generational importance to her. She learned the skill from her mother and grandmother, both avid sewers.
“I’ve always loved painting, sewing and visual art,” says Bujold, who is from Charlotte, North Carolina. “I wanted to go to college somewhere I could continue to practice those things, even though I’m not going to pursue them professionally.”
The ArtsLab stood out for Bujold when she did a campus tour, she adds. “They walked us into the studio and said students have access to all these materials, and my mind was blown.”
In addition to a robust supply of paints and canvases, the lab has scrap fabrics and tools for embroidery, jewelry making and leather crafts.
“It has so many different materials to use for sewing, which is really awesome,” Bujold says. “Even though I have a machine at home, I often go there to work on stuff because they have things I don’t.”
In April, Bujold served as creative director for the Fashion Design Studio’s spring fashion show. This year’s theme was human anatomy, “which can be super literal or super figurative,” she says. “We were looking at how clothes move when you’re moving.”
Many of the garments were produced in the ArtsLab, where Bujold says she has found a creative oasis — and a respite from challenging coursework.
“Junior year is the busiest year of my life,” Bujold explains. “Almost every other place I go between classes, I’m going there to study. I love my major, and I want to work toward my future, but in the ArtsLab I know that I will not be studying. I’m going with the purpose of being creative, and it’s a way to separate from the stress of academics.
“It’s been a really grounding place,” she adds.
Mini Studio
Dimi Deju can’t remember a world without dance.
“Dancing is how my mom would soothe me when I was little and would get a shot,” she says. “I’ve been a dancer since I could move.”
A junior business major from the Atlanta suburbs, Deju continues to move her feet at Emory as a co-captain of the student hip-hop dance crew, TNT.
The group of nearly 20 dancers performs at events across campus, including Homecoming and the annual Diwali celebration. While TNT primarily practices in the Woodruff Physical Education Center, it often holds smaller gatherings in the Mini Studio — usually for breakout groups to work on specific parts of a performance.
The TNT Dance Crew is one of many student clubs to enjoy Emory's maker spaces. (Photo courtesy of Dimi Deju)
The TNT Dance Crew is one of many student clubs to enjoy Emory's maker spaces. (Photo courtesy of Dimi Deju)
Deju helped choreograph the club’s audition routine in the Mini Studio with her fellow co-captains. Like the Music Den, the room is open 24 hours with a student ID.
“It’s an unofficial tradition for the co-captains to make the choreography the night before auditions,” she says. “It was really nice to have a closed room where it was just the three of us and we could focus.”
She describes the dance they designed as “high energy” and “rambunctious” — a perfect test to see if candidates could keep the beat.
Beker says Emory Arts opened the studio in response to increased demand from students, who saw the success of the ArtsLab and the Music Den.
“The important thing is students are telling us what they want,” Beker says. “It’s their experience, and they’re the reason we’re all here.”
Deju is making sure the Mini Studio sees plenty of foot traffic.
“Just yesterday I was choreographing a dance to a Beyoncé song with another club member,” she says. “We were just doing that for fun, not even for a performance.
“What I love about dance is how spontaneous yet intentional it can be,” Deju adds. “When I hear a song, I can’t help but dance. And when I’m dancing, I feel pure joy.”
Story and design by Daniel Christian.
Photos and video by Avery Spalding, Emory Photo/Video, except where noted.
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