Making a Community

"We are going to do something serious today," Umut Demirgüç Thurman ('05 M.F.A.) says to a group of seven people gathered for a workshop on a Sunday morning.

A rainbow of wool lines down a group of tables. The students take some wool in the color of their choice. Then, they grasp a sharp needle.

"You will stab your hand and cry a lot," Demirgüç Thurman says.

The students are there to make a felted cactus in a small clay pot, using the needle to form the wool into the shape of the plant and dirt. The hands of the students flow back and forth repeatedly as they make their creations and conversation.

"I think everyone will pass this class," quips Demirgüç Thurman, an adjunct professor in the College of Visual Arts and Design, also noting about the plants, "You can't kill these."

This class is part of the Denton Maker Center, which was opened this fall by a group of UNT faculty members and alumni, led by Demirgüç Thurman and her husband, James Thurman, professor of studio art. In its short time, the center has already hosted dozens of workshops and offers a store and space for local artists.

"We are all different backgrounds and majors, and everyone is volunteer," Demirgüç Thurman says. "They put their time, they put their money, they put their energy."

Trusting the Universe

Umut Demirgüç Thurman at the Denton Maker Center

Umut Demirgüç Thurman ('05 M.F.A.)

The center has been years in the making.

Both metalsmiths and jewelers, the Thurmans met in 2011 and have always talked about opening such a space -- inspired by a studio that Demirgüç Thurman had seen in her native Istanbul that hosted exhibitions, workshops and space for artists.

In 2023, they brought up the idea with friends and other artists, and plans started coming together. They went through months of paperwork to establish nonprofit status and put together a board -- with artists who create ceramics, sculptures, metals, paintings and mixed media -- and hosted monthly meetings. They originally planned to focus on fundraising before seeking out a physical space.

But then, board member Avery McGhee ('23, '24 M.B.A.), came across a building on Elm Street -- with affordable rent and a location near downtown Denton and UNT.

"Everything about the location was right," Thurman says. "So, we said, 'Well, we'll just trust the universe and jump into it and go for it.'"

In September, they signed the lease. A month later, they hosted 20 workshops and three seminars, many of them Halloween-related, promoting them through word of mouth and Instagram. A three-hour workshop on stained glass bats was supposed to end at 8 p.m., but the students were so involved with it that they stayed until 10.

Working with Others

People creating in a group setting at the Denton Maker Center

Annette Becker (’05 M.A.), curator and director of the Texas Fashion Collection, participates in the workshop.

On the way to the building, visitors pass through a window painted with seasonal art (for November, it was falling leaves). They enter a general-purpose room, which hosts the classes. On the right, a store offers local artists a space to sell their items. The back of the center holds two rooms, one focused more on jewelry-making and another for digital fabrication-related equipment like printers and a laser cutter.

Kimberly Bien, who is pursuing a studio art degree at UNT and is the owner of Salted Sanctuary Soap, volunteered to serve as shop manager.

"I love not only being able to be a part of it, but to be able to learn from everybody else," says Bien, a senior administrative specialist in UNT's College of Engineering. "As someone who's an artist, you go through a lot of starts and stops, and to become a deeper part of this particular artist community is very inspirational to me."

For new graduates, it provides them a space that they might not otherwise have as they transition from college to the professional world.

Kira Milan, a senior majoring in studio art, says it's "the best thing that could have happened" for those who, like her, are about to graduate.

"We've all been stressing about not having a studio," says Milan, whose concentrations are metalsmithing and jewelry and sculpture. "And, I know for me, one of my big concerns is that I'm not going to enjoy creating without my group of people. Right now, I'm in the studio all the time with all of my friends and we never leave. So, it gives us a spot in a community for us to still have that group."

A work in progress.

The center plans to offer internships in the future, as well as markets for the upcoming holiday season. They'll also work with other artists around Denton in sharing facilities.

"It still hasn't sunk in that it's real," Thurman says. "This is our space and we're doing all these things in it. I think seeing other things -- like the shop outfitted with everything, or the sign that one of our board members, Loren Jones ('21 M.F.A.), made -- certainly makes it more real. But I think it's definitely going to take us a while to believe it all."