West Oakland fired up at The Crucible
on March 23, 2014
The Crucible in West Oakland will commemorate 15 years of teaching community welding and other fire arts with an open house on April 12 to display the works of teachers, artists and students who use the space for creating public art.
Founded by sculptor Michael Sturtz in Berkeley in January 1999, The Crucible moved to West Oakland in 2003. Guided by a small group that shared Sturtz’s vision of a new kind of industrial arts experience, The Crucible has grown to claim the title of the country’s largest non-profit industrial arts education facility.
By 2012, The Crucible had offered 400 evening and weekend workshops attended by 5,000 people, including summer programs that teach children and teens welding and blacksmithing.
Among its “firsts,” the Crucible sponsored the first Fire Arts Festival in 2004, the first installation of rooftop solar panels to defray electric costs in 2006, and the first fire ballet production of ”Romeo and Juliet” in 2007. It also launched the first bicycle frame alteration (“hyphy bike”) workshop and the SPARC youth program blending science with welding and metal working arts.
The Crucible is located at 1260 7th St., near West Oakland BART.
For more information, go to thecrucible.org or call 510.444.0919.
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- The entrance to The Crucible is walking distance from the West Oakland BART.
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- The 19th Annual Bay Area Anarchist Book Fair event was held at The Crucible in West Oakland on March 22.
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- Sam Waller supervises as one of his student lifts a lighter as a leather crafting technique.
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- Haley Grebe, 25 helps her student with a tig welding technique. TIG welding can be used to fuse high-quality, clean welds on most materials, including steel, stainless steel, aluminum, copper, brass, bronze, and gold
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- The volunteer wall recognizes accomplishments including the Fire & Light soiree, Girls Inc. Program (Girls Welding), and annual Open House Student Art Exhibit & Sale.
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- Glassblowing involves three furnaces. The first, contains a crucible of molten glass, is simply referred to as the furnace.
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- The second called the glory hole reheats a piece in between steps. The final furnace is called the lehr or annealer, and is used to cool the glass to keep the glass from cracking or shattering due to thermal stress.
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- Workshops on gentrification, supporting and sustaining yourself, comrades, and radical struggles, and surveillance self defense were among the topics discussed at the Anarchist Book Fair on March 22.
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- 7,000 square feet of main event space is available for rent. Industrial work space and small classrooms are also available for seminars and community events.
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- A shelf of raw materials include recycled tube stocks, and pipe fittings.
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- Set up in a re-purposed warehouse, they offer classes in the metal arts bringing industrial chic into a whole new light.
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