Hands, Heart & Community: Kathy & Chris Adsit of Milwaukee Makerspace
If you’ve ever driven past 2555 S. Lenox Street in Bay View, you’ve probably seen a building with no fancy sign, no glowing neon, no loud claim to fame. Just a quiet place that, somehow, always seems to be awake. That’s Milwaukee Makerspace, a home for people who build, fix, create, imagine, and learn. And inside this place, woven into its heartbeat, you’ll find Kathy and Chris Adsit.
Through my personal experience, and through spending time with Kathy, I learned she is the kind of person who teaches gently, deliberate, patient, and steady in a way that makes even the most nervous beginner breathe a little easier. She doesn’t just teach stained glass; she teaches self-trust.
She walks you through that first subtle pressure of the glass cutter, the “score and snap” that every student is scared of, and she stays right there with you until you get it. And when you do? She smiles like she’s been waiting for you to surprise yourself.
That’s her gift. Making people believe they can create things they never imagined they could.
And then there’s the little garden outside the building. Most people don’t know who tends it. It’s Kathy. Of course it’s Kathy. Flowers and native plants growing against a concrete wall, an act of quiet rebellion, a reminder that beauty shows up where someone decides to care. She does it without announcement. Without asking for credit. Just love, work, soil, and intention.
Tools can build furniture, but people like Kathy and Chris build community.
Chris, the Makerspace President, brings his own kind of magic. He helps lead the board game nights, where strangers sit down together and leave as something else, collaborators, neighbors, new friends. It’s not about the game. It’s about what happens around the table: laughter, curiosity, the courage to show up and be part of something bigger than yourself.
That’s the real spirit of the place.
Tools can build furniture, but people like Kathy and Chris build community.
As winter settles over Milwaukee and the city leans toward warmth wherever it can find it, the Adsits remind us of why creative spaces matter. They keep the lights on, not just in the workshop, but in people. In possibility. In connection.
This holiday season, we honor them as living examples of what The Maker’s Forge stands for: the power of hands, heart, and the quiet courage to keep showing up for your community.
