Episode 31: The Crucible
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Students and Instructors Making in Blacksmithing, Glass Flameworking, Jewelry Casting, Leather Textiles Fine Art, MIG Welding and Woodworking
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“ I hope we never stop supporting people who might have to make a decision between paying their rent and eating ramen noodles.”
In this episode, we are focused on our Making Community and our featured voices are Susan Mernit the Executive Director of The Crucible along with Janey Hayes a Glass Artists who is one of the Teaching Artists and Instructors at The Crucible. The Crucible is a unique platform that enables the Maker Movement which is made up of tens of thousands of Bay Area students, hobbyists, artists, and enthusiasts to discover and pursue their passion for the Industrial Arts. During the Covid-19 pandemic the need for Making and the community it helps foster are even more important to our sense of belonging and supporting the post-pandemic recovery
Susan Mernit
Susan Mernit is the executive director of The Crucible, a nonprofit arts education organization based in West Oakland that fosters a collaboration of arts, industry, and community. Through training in the fine and industrial arts, The Crucible promotes creative expression, reuse of materials, and innovative design, while serving as an accessible arts venue for the general public in the Bay Area.
Before joining The Crucible, Mernit was co-founder and CEO of Hack the Hood, a Bay Area nonprofit that works to address the needs of low-income young people of color, ages 16 to 25, by empowering them to pursue jobs in tech in the Bay Area and across the region. Its 168-hour intensive “Bootcamp” builds a powerful and effective roadway to mid- and high-skills jobs with advanced training for in-demand tech careers through a direct service and train-the-trainer model. Mernit co-founded Hack the Hood while running Oakland Local, an impactful hyperlocal news site, and while working as a consultant for The Knight Foundation’s Community Impact Challenge program.
A former VP at America Online and Netscape, and a former Yahoo! Senior Director, Mernit has spent her life working at the intersection of media, tech, and the arts. She has consulted for a number of organizations, including Public Radio International, Salon.com and TechSoup Global. She led a 2008 Tech Stars company start-up and worked with Jeff Jarvis to launch The Yuckiest Site on the Internet, one of the first youth websites, later acquired by Discovery Communications. In her earliest days, she was a teaching artist for Teachers & Writers Collaborative in New York, a published writer and small-press bookmaker, and a proud counselor at Buck’s Rock Work Camp.
A skilled trainer and speaker, Mernit has taught workshops on social media, news, and strategy for The Poynter Institute, the Knight Foundation, and the Knight Digital Media Center at USC/Annenberg School of Journalism. She was a Carlos McClatchy Fellow at Stanford University School of Journalism and is a longtime Oakland resident.
A former VP at America Online and Netscape, and a former Yahoo! Senior Director, Mernit has spent her life working at the intersection of media, tech, and the arts. She has consulted for a number of organizations, including Public Radio International, Salon.com and TechSoup Global. She led a 2008 Tech Stars company start-up and worked with Jeff Jarvis to launch The Yuckiest Site on the Internet, one of the first youth websites, later acquired by Discovery Communications. In her earliest days, she was a teaching artist for Teachers & Writers Collaborative in New York, a published writer and small-press bookmaker, and a proud counselor at Buck’s Rock Work Camp.
A skilled trainer and speaker, Mernit has taught workshops on social media, news, and strategy for The Poynter Institute, the Knight Foundation, and the Knight Digital Media Center at USC/Annenberg School of Journalism. She was a Carlos McClatchy Fellow at Stanford University School of Journalism and is a longtime Oakland resident.
Janet Hayes
Janet Hayes is a glass artist and instructor at Oakland’s The Crucible, the largest non-profit industrial arts school in the country. Janet works in several glass media, including borosilicate ("hard glass"), traditional soda-lime ("soft glass"), and kiln-formed sculpture ("warm glass").
A glass artist's chief tools are heat, gravity, and time. Intense focus is required to shape glass with a torch, and the specialized tools and high temperatures can be intimidating at first. But when the maker is in the flow, the work is fully absorbing, even meditative.
Janet believes the only activity more satisfying than making glass art is teaching others. At the start of every class at least one new student says apologetically, "I'm not very artistic." That's when the fun begins. Students who have been frustrated by drawing or painting are in for a very different experience. Sculpting glass can be liberating and deeply satisfying.
A beginning class in an industrial arts studio is a profoundly egalitarian environment. All the tools and skills are new, and there's no advantage afforded by age, race, or zip code. The most successful students approach the craft with curiosity and a "beginner's mind." The journey for continuing artists includes experimentation and collaboration -- and thousands of hours of practice.
Janet wants more youth and adults to have the chance to explore industrial arts. As a non-profit, mission-driven school, The Crucible provides studio access, instruction, and community support for a diverse community of staff and students. It's a joy to create in community with other artists and makers. Please check out Janet’s beautiful glass work on her website: www.janethayesstudio.com
The Crucible
The Crucible first opened its doors on January 15, 1999, in a rented 6,000-square-foot warehouse in West Berkeley, then moved to West Oakland in 2003. Since then, we have evolved into a community-focused industrial arts school and community, serving West Oakland and the Greater Bay Area. For more history on The Crucible
The Crucible is a nonprofit organization and art school dedicated to making the fine and industrial arts accessible for all ages, backgrounds, and abilities. Our work is centered in Oakland and the East Bay, where we provide high-quality, fun classes and workshops to over 8,000 people each year.
As part of celebrating and empowering Oakland, we offer free programming, scholarships, and paid leadership opportunities for youth and adults who live locally and otherwise could not participate.
A leader in the Bay Area arts community, The Crucible is widely recognized for its exceptional learning experiences, rich and varied arts programs, skilled and committed faculty, and unparalleled educational facilities. Read about our impact
Sign up for a Class and begin your adventure in making
Donation / Volunteer
The Crucible believes that Art Transforms Lives and is working to raise funds to both continue to provide classes as well as to underwrite their operations and have a Special $20,000 Challenge
Please help both local artists and The Crucible by doing your holiday shopping through The Crucible’s annual craft show Virtual GIFTY. Here’s the list of Vendors and you can also support The Crucible through the Giving Back At GIFTY
Videos
To find out more about The Crucible please check out their videos:
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“I think that we’ve really found each other. What we’ve seen is that holding together as a community is really, really critical and that making an investment in the people in the building so that they can stay in the area and do their artwork is really part of fulfilling our mission. It’s about supporting young people and supporting access to the arts and careers, but it’s also about the people doing the teaching.”
Our Sponsorship
We are fiscally sponsored by Intersection for the Arts, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, which allows us to offer you tax deductions for your contributions. Please consider making a donation to help us provide future shows just like this one. If you want to send us a check, please make checks payable to Intersection for the Arts and write [Voices of the Community] in the memo line of your check. This ensures that you’ll receive an acknowledgement letter for tax purposes, and your donation will be available for our project.
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