Repair Shop

Repair Shop, a partnership between Rachel Meade Smith and Sam Bennett, is a public education project intent on making repair skills accessible and commonplace.

Their public programs and workshops have included on-site repair workshops at Greenpoint Library and Environmental Education Center; a multi-generational after-school program focused on vanishing couture repair and alteration skills at the High School of Fashion Industries; and research into repair-knowledge sharing for public presentation at the Estonia National Museum. Other partners have included New York Public Library, New York City Department of Education, Columbia Climate School, and donateNYC. Repair Shop’s work has been featured internationally, in publications like Harper’s Bazaar, Monopol, i-D Magazine, Hyperallergic, and Obscura.

Sam Bennett is a PhD candidate at Technology University of Eindhoven exploring the connection between repairing material things and caring for an aging population. She previously taught textile design, interior design, and ethnography courses at Parsons School of Design, Pratt Institute, and New Jersey Institute of Technology. Rachel Meade Smith is an independent writer, editor, artist, and educator focused on civic design and knowledge sharing. She received her MA in design studies from Parsons School of Design.