warm day in early spring.
Twenty-five years ago, two young creatives, Nick Bauta and Clay Rockefeller, bought the contaminated Providence Steel and Iron complex off Sims Avenue and converted it into a sustainable industrial arts resource for the community. Within a year, Patten was brought in as the first full-time director to help establish it as a 501( c)( 3) nonprofit.
Today,“ the Steel Yard is, by definition, an industrial arts nonprofit,” Honda says as we head inside and gather around a clay-covered table.“ Industrial arts can be a little bit ambiguous, but we do blacksmithing, jewelry, welding and ceramics— fields that can be production-oriented, but in this space are used for artistic means.”
The organization’ s mission is to advance the industrial arts by giving artists, makers
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