Today we’d like to introduce you to Shannon Newby.
Hi Shannon, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Kid Lab started in my house 10 years ago (in 2015). It was a seedling of an idea at first – I was a new mom and wanted to find fun, creative ways to connect with my daughter (then 2 yrs old) and also make connections with other moms in the area. There were a handful of places I enjoyed going to frequently (Marbles, the Science Museum for example) but there didn’t seem to be many opportunities for really young kids to tinker, get messy and playfully learn alongside other kids in the community. So I began slowly renovating a section of my house to be a kids zone- an area designed with kids in mind and started a nonprofit called Kid Lab. It started with just a handful of families coming over with their young kids and it soon turned into small, ongoing programs that I began to offer regularly. That turned into summer camps. Which turned into community partnerships (and eventually a shared space for our programming in Read With Me – a kids bookstore that was one block from Marbles museum on Hargett St). At one point, other organizations (Transfer Food Hall, Moore Square, Dix park, for example) reached out and asked if I could put together popup events to bring playful learning / tinkering / creative experiences to kids at their locations. After our programming was put on pause (due to Covid), we began to envision a more mobile version of Kid Lab that would allow us to more easily facilitate the kind of experiences we were creating around town. In May of 2023, we purchased a 6 ft trailer and have been operating Kid Lab out of our “mobile makerspace” ever since. We often get asked to come out to parks, neighborhood events, festivals, museums, libraries, etc. It’s a delight to be able to watch this grow into a community-driven endeavor!
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
As with every organization, we hit some challenges during Covid – we weren’t sure how to operate safely with the families we were trying to serve. We pivoted and began creating online content (STEM video lessons and project tutorials) for kids to watch at home and for caregivers to have fresh ideas for at-home learning and playing. That was a tough season – to not be able to connect directly with kids- but we’re glad we now have an archive of fun content on our website that still gets used (by families all over the world!)
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I’m an educator and artist by training. For a little while, my work has ventured into public art, but mainly I have taught art to kids of all ages. I frequently work with the United Arts Council of Wake County to offer short visual arts residencies in schools, and on the side I dabble in woodworking and toy design.
I think Kid Lab is unique in that it’s a place for kids to “play-test” ideas– they get to use new tools and materials and we help them bring their ideas to life. It’s also fun for us to encourage caregivers to fuel their child’s curiosity at home. So, in a way, Kid Lab is just as much for the adults that come through as it is for the kids. We hope adults will stick around and make things with us too! We like to say – Kid Lab is a place where kids play to learn and adults learn to play.
Who else deserves credit in your story?
I run Kid Lab with my dear friend, Susan Woodard Kelly. She’s a professional watercolorist and I couldn’t do this without her. Together, we dream, design and implement all the programs and creative mischief around town.
Our husbands, Erik Newby and Daniel Kelly, are also really involved. They help us drive the trailer around town and do a lot of the heavy lifting (quite literally) with load-in and load-out.
As a nonprofit, we’ve had a LOT of supporters and cheerleaders along the way. We’re 100% fueled by donations and support from bookings that come from realty groups and organizations around town who get the vision of Kid Lab and want to bring the Kid Lab “magic” to their clients and the greater public. It’s been so encouraging to see how our community has supported this work!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.kidlabraleigh.com
- Instagram: kidlabraleigh
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@kidlab2356
