About Us
Imagination Station is run by LUG 4/2 - an Incorporated Society (#2563380) registered with the New Zealand Charities Commission (#CC50587). We specialise in providing creative play and creative education.
Learn more about us by exploring below...
Everyone is welcome at Imagination Station. Come with family and friends, bring your own food and have a relaxing time.
Our mission is to build creative, lifelong learners. We offer high-quality resources and experiences that align with our four key values: Creativity, Engagement, Accessibility, and Exploration.
Creativity: Creative play is essential for growing creative minds. We foster the development of critical skills like innovation and communication through our play area and educational programmes.
Engagement: Developing any skill requires time and practice. We use LEGO products as a trusted tool to encourage people of all ages to engage with their imagination and the world around them.
Accessibility: Positive learning experiences should be accessible to everyone. By making our resources and skilled staff available to all, we create opportunities for our whole community.
Exploration: The process of exploring uncovers endless opportunities to be curious, experiment, and learn. We encourage people to think exploratively through hands-on learning experiences.
Anna Ross - Operations Manager
Anna has a background in science, design and classroom teaching, so finds working at Imagination Station to be an excellent way to bring all her skills together in a job that requires the best parts of each with all the boring bits removed. She particularly enjoys having twelve Lego Mindstorms kits to experiment with at Imagination Station. It should come as no surprise that her favourite class at Imagination Station is definitely robot battles. Anna is a lifetime fan of LEGO, with her earliest LEGO memories featuring Fabuland and the classic space sets. She also boasts an extensive minifigure collection. Prior to taking on the position of Operations Manager, Anna was the Senior Facilitator at Imagination Station.
Sam recently arrived back in Christchurch after leaving the scenic West Coast to study in Dunedin. After finishing her studies in Biomedical Science, Sam worked at the Otago Museum as a Science Communicator and Educator for a couple of years before deciding to pursue a new challenge. Bringing all kinds of science and communication skills plus plenty of teaching experience and almost too much enthusiasm, Sam moved up to Ōtautahi to join the Imagination Station Team as our Teaching Imaginator. In her spare time, Sam is likely to be swimming, reading, or dancing.
Sylvia Anitelea - Volunteer Co-ordinator
Sylvia is all about serving her community in any way she can! She has a background in voluntary work for Community Food Pantries, as well as with children and youth services. Sylvia loves that Imagination Station provides a safe environment for the community to create and explore all the wonders of LEGO. Sylvia loves all things Marvel in a galaxy far far away and Middle Earth! She also enjoys meeting new people, thrift shopping and discovering new music. When she’s not at Imagination Station, she is hanging out with her large and loud family, volunteering at her local church, eating cake or binge watching the latest superhero series.
Marcela Vitória - Play Facilitator
Marcela has many passions, from traveling to design, from music to pop culture. She has a background in fashion design and advertising, and has worked in many different places over the years. Although native Brazilian, she doesn't let language become a barrier to meeting new people and enjoying all cultures. Even though LEGO was always something present in her life, she discovered a new passion when she started volunteering at Imagination Station. Now she's a social media coordinator and a teaching imaginator. Alongside her many life goals, one is to have LEGO sets of all her favourite movies and TV shows, as well as an enviable vinyl collection.
Ayal Dimant - Play Facilitator
Ayal has always been one to seek answers and information. Currently he is studying towards his Bachelor of Science degree in biochemistry and psychology. Ayal believes that creativity has no bounds and that LEGO is an excellent tool to express these ideas. For as long as he can remember Ayal has had LEGO and still has it all, including almost every set from the 10 years of Bionicles. In his free time he enjoys rock climbing, swimming and seeing live music. Before being in the position of facilitator Ayal was a dedicated volunteer at Imagination Station, both in Christchurch Central and New Brighton.
Sam Butcher - Managing Director
Sam is the one who does all the ‘behind the scenes’ work—you’ll only see him from time to time at Imagination Station, as most of his work is done offsite. He’s responsible for making sure Imagination Station can stay open: engaging partners, hiring staff, managing investments and equipment, managing our relationship with the LEGO Group, and making sure we stay in line with the strategic focus of BUG4/2 which is the registered charity Imagination Station operates under.
Sam has a background in Business Economics and Information Systems. His experience with LEGO is hugely broad. He was a founding board member of BUG4/2 acting as Deputy Chair until 2015, also acting as the ambassador to the LEGO group during that time. Before co-founding Imagination Station, Sam had been involved with LEGO Education at several different schools. Outside of work, Sam loves spending time with his wife and daughter, and enjoys building the occasional LEGO model, scouting out new music artists, reading, and exploring New Zealand.
Please feel free to contact Sam directly via email with any concerns, feedback or enquiries.
Imagination Station first opened its doors to the public in January of 2015, in the Cathedral Junction centre. We were initially set up as a six month project after some creative ideas started flowing between the local LEGO Users’ Group (LUG4/2) and the Christchurch City Council. Imagination Station is still run by LUG4/2 (whom you may be familiar with as the organisers of The Christchurch Brick Show), which is an incorporated society and registered charity.
Throughout 2016 and 2017, Imagination Station was one of the founding members of the CHCHSTEAM Network - a group of educational groups working together to bring better STEM Education to Christchurch, and make it more accessible. Towards the end of 2016, discussions started about Christchurch's New Central Library.
Imagination Station saw the potential of working together with the libraries network to provide LEGO play and education to Christchurch in a more sustainable way. Discussions continued throughout 2017, resulting in Imagination Station securing a space in Tūranga - Christchruch's New Central Library. Imagination Station moved into it's new Tūranga in October 2018, and looks forward to the many opportunites that lie ahead in Christchurch.
Now that we are settled into a new rhythm of operation inside Tūranga, we're proud to work in continued collaboration with the Christchurch City Council Libraries to provide high-quality learning experinces for Christchurch residents. We're also partnered with Te Mātāpuna Mātātahi | Children's University to help kids stay on the right track with their learning.