The 401
RHODE TRIPS
BY KAITLYN MURRAY
PHOTOGRAPHY: COURTESY OF THE STEEL YARD.
I
Iron Will
The Steel Yard in Providence is so much more than the Iron Pour: It’ s a space where industrial artists thrive.
WAS FIRST INTRODUCED TO THE STEEL YARD in Providence on a first date back in October 2016. Having grown up in South County and only just recently acquired my first real job working in the city, I had no idea where the guy was taking me.
I remember thinking,“ We’ re going to a junkyard? Is this what‘ Dateline’ warned me about?”
Fortunately, there was no need to break out the pepper spray. Rather than luring me to a creepy abandoned scrap heap, my date brought me to a spacious courtyard where we joined hundreds of spectators for the Iron Pour, an annual event where large sculptures are brought to life with fire and molten metal. I can still see a massive dragon unleashing
CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: Sparks fly at a blacksmithing class taught by John D. Harvey; an instructor oversees a student working on a bike; Public Projects Director Tim Ferland in front of the Capron Park Zoo arch in Attleboro, Massachusetts; a Public Projects example at the Rocky Point State Park Fishing Pier; instructor Alison Brunn tinkers at a jewelry bench.
fire from its iron jaws as I clutched my hot chocolate. While those were the only sparks I experienced that night— the boy didn’ t last— it was enough to ignite my lasting love for Providence’ s creative soul.
I’ ve since attended a few more Iron Pours— the last being in 2024, complete with a towering praying mantis— but I’ m ashamed to admit that a decade after my first introduction, I still didn’ t know much about the event’ s host. So, when the Steel Yard’ s Education Manager, Nyala Honda, offered a tour of the space, I happily agreed. We met up with Interim Executive Director Drake Patten and Public Projects Director Tim Ferland on an uncharacteristically
52 RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY I JULY 2026