Suggestion Box: What is Our Steel Yard?

Whenever the conversation turns to co-working spaces, it’s the same things that come up again and again: shared copy machines, fax machines, conference rooms, etc. This may appeal to a certain class of individuals, but is not useful for those who are inclined toward skilled manual labor — blacksmithing, welding, ceramics, and jewelery — the type of things that could fall under “industrial arts.” We can all find a photocopier at Kinkos without much trouble, but access to a metal forge? Good luck with that.

The Steel Yard in Providence offers studio space and access to tools, classes, and more at its three acre location in a neighborhood filled with old mills, factories, and foundries. This neighborhood has had its share of tensions and violence, but neither seems to be a deterrent. Last month, The Steel Yard hosted its eighth annual “Halloween Iron Pour,” an event that attracted hundreds of visitors despite the cold, $10 entrance fee, and absence of on-site parking. This collaboration with The Iron Guild is a kind of performance art complete with music by the Empty House Cooperative; props in the form of tiki huts, gods, and a volcano; ceramics and shirts for sale; and food trucks parked far from the fire.

Even with some technical difficulties and the Providence Fire Department requesting they not light all the props on fire — it was a windy night — it’s not hard to see why so many people would come out to peek at the space where utilitarianism and aesthetics collide.

The Halloween Iron Pour brings attention to some of what is always happening in the space at The Steel Yard. One of those things is collaboration. The props and set used in the 2013 pour were created by students at Bristol Community College, participants in the Weld to Work program, and artists affiliated the Iron Guild and the Steel Yard. This brings attention to The Steel Yard’s programs while enhancing involvement between colleges and community.

Weld to Work, run by the Steel Yard, is a paid work training program for young adults that requires students to work on a personal project and a team project after completing basic shop practice.

The Steel Yard offers other classes for a fee, training people in fabrication, blacksmithing, wax casting, making ceramic tiles, and more.

The client base is diverse, not catering to just “artists” or just “students” or just “job-seekers,” and that is what makes this a more interesting venue than something that settles for slapping the “entrepreneur” label on itself.

Beyond the studio rentals and classes, there are business tenant spaces. The yard is available to be rented for events. There’s some versatility here.

What they are doing in Providence, they’re doing well.

Certainly Hartford has steel facilities, but we also have plenty of vacant parcels and old factories that are waiting for usage that is more inventive than renovating into lofts or letting them decay into the ground.