As C’Zarriah Davis-Smith turns on the gas line and gathers her glass frit, a sense of calm falls over the flameworking studio. It’s a feeling often found in the presence of someone who loves what they do. And 18-year-old C’Zarriah loves working in glass.
Rosa Dorantes, The Crucible’s Ceramics Department Head, has been working with clay since she was in 7th grade, She proudly remembers having her early ceramics work displayed at her local mall, and stuck with ceramics throughout high school and college. Now, Rosa is proud to be expanding our ceramics studio, doubling the square footage and bringing a long-awaited update to the department—eight new pottery wheels.
This past Thursday, after a 21-month hiatus, The Crucible hosted its first field trip day since February 2020 with 48 McClymond's High School students.
The month of August is an important time for our studio staff. June and July bring the roar of Youth Summer Camps, and September is when adult and youth afterschool classes are back in full swing. But in between is a great time to tackle overdue projects and build a more functional studio.
Today would have been The Crucible’s Fire & Light Soirée and Art Auction, our annual fundraiser that generates over $250,000 to fund scholarships and support for our industrial arts education programs. Below you can browse a few of the incredible pieces we were planning to auction off today, and learn more about just a few of the 230+ working artists that make The Crucible the unique place that it is.
Studio closures around The Bay Area have had a major impact on the maker community. Our working artists—whether they sell original art, depend on commission work, or are regular instructors in our classrooms—have lost their main sources of income due to Covid-19 shutdowns.
While our community faces widespread changes, we wanted to share some resources to help artists, Oaklanders, the greater Bay Area, and beyond find support during Covid-19 shutdowns. This list will be regularly updated as new information becomes available.
On Saturday, The Crucible made the decision to temporarily close to the public to help mitigate the spread of COVID-19. On Monday, Alameda County ordered all non-essential businesses to close for three weeks. Spring is one of our busiest times of year, full of community events, funding opportunities, and hundreds of classes.
Celeste Flores fell in love with blacksmithing in art school, but it wasn’t until she came to The Crucible that she decided to become a full-time metalworker. “I’ve been rejected for my appearance and for being unconventional and in those environments, I wasn’t able to thrive,” she says. But The Crucible was a welcoming and supportive place for her, both as an artist and an entrepreneur.
Pablo Cambron-Valdez has been interested in art and sculpture since childhood. He would often make figurines out of clay his mom brought home from work or attempt origami from scraps of paper. But when he took his first Glass Blowing class the summer before high school–a gift he received for getting good grades–he knew it was something special.