The Crucible (arts education center)
The Crucible is a nonprofit industrial arts school in Oakland, California, United States. Established in Berkeley in 1999, the institute was moved to its present location in 2003.
The mission of The Crucible is to foster 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 and serves as an arts venue for the general public.
The Crucible has classes in blacksmithing, ceramics, enameling, fire performance, foundry, glass, hot wheels, jewelry, kinetics and electronics, machine shop, moldmaking, neon and light, stone working, textiles, welding, woodworking, and other industrial arts with an average of 5,000 students a year. The Crucible's Youth Program serves over 3,000 youth annually, half of whom are members of the West Oakland community who have access to free classes and workshops. Founder, Michael Sturtz, has created two fire operas, a fire ballet, and a burning version of Homer's Odyssey, in addition to the annual Fire Arts Festival held in July.
As a nonprofit organization, The Crucible relies on annual membership donations, grants and individual donations.
The Crucible Youth Program is committed to community service with local schools and neighborhoods. Since 2005, the Youth and Community Outreach Program has served nearly 8,000 youth between the ages of 8 and 18.
The program includes weekend and afterschool classes, camps, and field trips. The experiences support learning in areas such as mathematics, science, art, and world culture. Participants learn about the processes, tools, materials and applications of industrial arts.
The workshop gives West Oakland youth hands on experience to learn about bike mechanics. In a six-week workshop, the youth work with volunteer bike mechanics to fix donated bikes. Each participant fixes two bikes and keeps one. The other bike is sold to raise money to support the bike program.
The Crucible holds 'Bike Fix-a-thon' workshops where youth and their families can learn about bike maintenance and safety.
The Crucible's Educational Response Vehicle (ERV) is a 1960 International Harvester fire engine, modified to a demonstration platform for industrial and fire arts. ERV can demonstrate:
The Fire Arts Festival was a recurring event held in Oakland, California. It was organized by The Crucible arts education center as its main fundraising event. The festival featured open-air exhibits of fire art and performances.
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