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photo: GERMAINE WATKINS (BILL STRICKLAND) |
Ceramic Tale
BY DENNIS NISHI
Bill Strickland turned his love of ceramics into a creative outlet for disadvantaged city kids. In 1968, he started a Pittsburgh program called the Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild to offer arts classes to kids; now he’s CEO of the 138-employee nonprofit Manchester Bidwell, which also provides vocational training to adults. He won a MacArthur Fellowship “genius” award in 1996 for economic development. He spoke with The Wall Street Journal about his work. Here are edited excerpts of the interview: WSJ: I hear you often cut classes in high school. How did you end up on the dean’s list at the University of Pittsburgh? MR. STRICKLAND: An art teacher, Frank Ross, got me excited about pottery. He would bring people into class [to give lectures] and play jazz albums. He really opened up my world view and helped me get into the University of Pittsburgh, where I was admitted on probationary status. WSJ: What did you want to do with a history degree? MR. STRICKLAND: I intended to become a history teacher in the public schools. As it turned out, Dr. King had been assassinated and riots were going on when I graduated. I wanted to help out and improve the situation in my neighborhood by finding an alternative to the violence. WSJ: And ceramics was part of that plan? MR. STRICKLAND: I started a program in the neighborhood and used ceramics classes as the draw. These kids just needed some intervention, people to care about them. That became the Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild. WSJ: How did you get your programs into Pittsburgh-area schools? MR. STRICKLAND: One of the high-school superintendents got excited by what we were doing and said we should do this on a larger scale. We started offering other classes like photography. Eventually we ended up offering arts classes in every high school in the district. WSJ: You also provide vocational assistance to adults? MR. STRICKLAND: Bidwell Training Center shares the same space and helps people who’ve lost their jobs. WSJ: How do your programs differ from other vocational programs? MR. STRICKLAND: In our arts program, we closely mentor every kid and do not hesitate to buy the best equipment we can on behalf of the kids. It’s like a private-school environment. In the vocational program, we customize training specific to industries. We’ve created partnerships with companies like Bayer [and] Alcoa to help retrain workers for specific jobs. WSJ: What’s an example of a job you’ve helped fill? MR. STRICKLAND: With Bayer’s help, we developed a chemical-technician training program. We’ve trained 40 technicians who work for Bayer right now. These are permanent jobs that pay well for people that came out of poverty. WSJ: You won the MacArthur “genius” award for economic development. Can you elaborate? MR. STRICKLAND: These days, they call it social innovation. That is, taking entrepreneurial ideas and applying them to social problems. Like the way we integrated arts into public education for at-risk kids; getting specific job training from local corporations for welfare moms; and how our recording studio won four Grammys, so we ended up spinning off our own jazz label. It’s the combination of all of those things that caught the attention of the MacArthur people. Mr. Strickland struggled in high school, but an art teacher inspired him to get interested in pottery and helped him get into college. He now uses pottery classes as a way to help disadvantaged youth.
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