Lars Hasselblad Torres

Lars began his career in the arts in 1998 when he and several other artists established the Center for Collaborative Art and Visual Education in Washington, DC. He went on to develop arts programs with support from the Mayor’s office, which eventually led him to help establish the Booker T. Washington Public Charter School for Technical Arts, the city’s first trade school. Over the last ten years, he has contributed to the growth and success of numerous maker spaces in the northeast, including Artisans’ Asylum in Boston, where he led a significant turnaround and relocation effort, securing $5.2M in investment and a 22-year lease for the organization’s new 52,500 sq. ft. facility. In Vermont, he founded Local 64 in Montpelier, helped to grow Generator in Burlington, and led HatchSpace in Brattleboro. Most recently, he served as Entrepreneur in Residence at Do North, the coworking space of Vermont State University in Lyndonville.