[00:00:06]
LT: Ok, so I guess if you just want to just start off with your life background… where you grew up and all that…
NN: I grew up in Seekonk, which is right on the line. I don’t know if you know where it is.
LT: Yeah.
[00:00:21]
NN: Near Pawtucket. And, uh, then when I was six… no. I went to RIC, Rhode Island College, for sculpture, before I did that I struggled to get out of high school. Actually I had a quarter life crisis, I like to call it. I like started working at this box company and I did it and I was like I can’t do this the rest of my life, so I went and quit, or got fired, whichever one you want to call it, and I did City Year, here in Providence, which I thought would be a good start. I don’t know if you know anything about that. But that’s kind of another, well it’s a non-profit community service organization. And, uh, it really helped to kinda, well it had its faults and it had its pluses and one of the pluses was all the people I met, which were from all over the city.
[00:01:19]
So I did that, then I started going to RIC, then more I got into it, the more I got into sculpture then I eventually went into sculpture and did a little bit of ceramics. And pretty much the week I graduated, umm, I met Peter, Clay… who are, Peter’s the executive director, Clay’s the cofounder, and uh, a couple other guys and uh, just started renting studio space and eventually I was part of the Steelyard community. You know what I mean? I worked at the Red Fez. So it was nice because when I was still in school I was trying to, you know, figure out what the, what the Christ I was gonna do and then I got out and I had already started to kinda meet them and talk to them because they would come to the restaurant.
[00:02:05]
So eventually when I got out it was like I pretty much just started there, so it was like I never really had any lost time between getting out of school and being like, ok, great, I picked a career that has no industry, you know, for someone to make a decent living, and it has absolutely, like, it’s impossible from coming from not a lot of money to have, you know, 50,000 to 75,000 dollars to start my own studio with the equipment that I would need to use, so, that make sense?
[00:02:35]
LT: So, have you been there the whole time?
NN: No, I’ve known them, like I’ve said, I would kinda hang out here and there, but really didn’t jump on board until, probably about two and a half years ago, so it’s really only been yeah, about two years ago. So it’s been around like solid, like maybe three. So I’ve been there like a good portion of it, you know what I mean? So… I started teaching weekend welding workshops and the just kinda, you know? But I don’t wanna jump ahead, I’ll let you…
LT: No, well, you can just talk.
[00:03:11]
NN: Oh. Umm… so I started teaching the weekend welding workshops and uh, you know I TAed, kinda, which is like a volunteer thing and like everything worked out, I had a lot of fun so I started teaching my own, umm, and uh, eventually I was teaching. We started our own whole like urban furniture thing with like the garbage cans and park benches and stuff like that. Tree guards, bike racks. And Howie Schneider, actually, started that. That was like one of the first things that he kinda took on. Then I came on board and started kinda like working like I was kinda like, now I kinda help him as much as I can. And I started teaching six-week classes that we put together; it was a little bit more advanced. So I did few of those. And uh, around August they asked me if I wanted to run the metals shop, because we didn’t have like a department head, so I basically I was siked about it, sure. You know?
[00:04:12]
And it’s good because it gives me a chance to be right in it when the place evolves, which is kinda what I’m grateful for. So now I run the shop. I would say I assist Howie because he takes on a lot of responsibility as far as like, you know, administrative stuff, you know, like to get these grants and get these checks from the state and the government and like so I like am this studio guy, when he’s like oh, we gotta make this. I’ll be like alright we’ll, and me and him, we’ll do it together. Um, and then we also have the cans. The cans are basically, and uh, this is kinda the thing that revolves around, the cans, that at this point to me and him are exciting. Um, because they’re garbage cans, but at the same time, we do a system, where, you know, if we’re doing 25 garbage cans, like we did the ones on Wickenden Street.
[00:05:07]
But, you take your frames and then you
pick, say, 5 artists, and each artist gets 5 cans, and each artist
can basically do whatever they want within like very minimal
restrictions, which can be like you know, they need to be sandblasted
and powder coated so that they’ll last through the weather, you
know? But other than that if you see some of them, there’s a lot of
great people, it really helps to bring new people in, like young
people and old people and get us to kinda put them together on like a
community work day and the everyone has say, two or three weeks to do
their own thing. And then we have like a little critique, umm, really
after that we get paid, which is my favorite part, and then uhh…no,
just kidding. And then, you know from there, everyone, we get em
sandblasted and powder coated and everyone gets to see like the
finished product and then we kinda talk about where they’re gonna
go, cause there’s set areas.
[00:06:03]
And then, lately we’ve been… the first bunch, we installed, which was fun, cause we were out on Wickenden Street at like 11 o’clock on a Sunday, with like you know buckets of cement, and like, you know, drills, and like putting these things in. It was pretty funny. And then we did like 30 for downtown, which, uh, we basically just put together, they weren’t actually that creative. But, it gave us a chance to keep the program running and to work with downtown, and you know, eventually, hopefully, do something with them where, you know, cause they need so many cans, they’ll take 60 that are a standard design, but eventually we might be able to throw a few different ones in there, so it might be kinda interesting. We’ll see. So I guess I went from the beginning to the end in five minutes. There’s a lot more in between, but.
[00:06:52]
LT: Did you say that this is kinda like a public art project?
NN: Absolutely, yeah. Uh, one of the other things that we do and uh, Howie does this a little bit more, I kinda, at times, just kind do what I’m told, but if there’s a Met School class coming up with the kids, me and him, we’ll usually get first dibs, like is this something you want to do. So, even more so there, there’s a couple kids, there’s this kid Lucas, who’s a really good kid and he’s actually from Broad Street Studios, but he goes to the Met School too and him and Howie did like a couple, um, the renovated these tree guards that some guy made and made em like, well, whoever the guy that made em they’re all over the city and they’re just like the worst design because they go high off. Like, they’re so close to the curb that people like open their doors and there’s a metal tree guard like right there, you know what I mean? So they took a coupla those that needed to be taken down and fixed and like him and Lucas did em and put everything together and installed them and went out in Howie’s truck. I had a class with uh, Broad Street Studios where, uh, the kids would come and then you’d teach em, these are, you know, 15, 16, 17 year old kids and it’s amazing how rambunctious kids that age are, but once you light a 3,000 degree torch in front of them, they’re like ready to pay attention, you know what I mean? But that’s another public kinda thing, cause you’re bringin in, I mean we love to bring as many people in as we can, but it’s so hard to find a permanent spot, so to speak, because so many of us work on a volunteer basis but it’s so hard to find a space where like you can be here every day, it’s tough to do that. So, it’s nice to bring people in and to get these public art projects and to get kids in there and to get grants and stuff like that. And it’s nice to kinda see like, you know, exactly what it is, it’s like public, you know what I mean?
[00:08:59]
LT: So, where do you see all this going?
NN: Um, well, we had just got a new executive director, it’s this lady, Drake, and uh, Peter just left, which Peter is great. He started, like Clay and Nick who are the cofounders and they’re both on the board and it’s like their thing, you know? But they realized, like I’m assuming they realized that as it got bigger it can’t it’s still their thing, but they need help with their thing. So they took Peter on board um, 3 years ago, and he was great, he was like, you know, super guy, always made it work somehow, and I think with Pete the biggest thing was that he realized what his fault were, so he knew he was good at, you know the business side of it, or he definitely had his good points, but he was also at the point where it’s like well, I’m not used to this, like I don’t know all these different people in the non-profit world and like how to get grants, and stuff like that. Where everyone who met him loved him, but not everyone knew him, you know what I mean. Where, Drake, I feel kinda came in, she’s got a lot of experience, she’s got, you know, she knows how to handle every situation, she’s been there since January, February, and I can already see she’s like putting a cohesive bond on the whole thing and bringing it all together, and basically taking what Pete built and building on that and taking it even higher than Pete did, you know what I mean?
[00:10:26]
So, over the next 3 years, hopefully, we, this is all speculation, you know, and we don’t, I’m, not too involved in like all the office stuff and like listening and talking to everyone and um, hopefully purchasing the site, and don’t even ask me to explain that cause that’s a whole other can of worms. We rent the site, but it’s a long story. Purchasing the site, or portions of the site, um, renovating it, like the buildings, and remediating the land, cause it’s got so many EPA, not violations, but it needs to be like leveled and capped off because it’s 100 years of steel working and lead right in the middle of it. So, as that grows, and over time it’s gonna be, uh growin so fast it’s gonna be a little bit of a slow process, but once it gets to a certain point, it’ll speed up again and eventually I see like a lot more community projects, a lot more urban furniture.
[00:11:25]
We have a bronze casting department, like they’re slowing doing more and more and more, um, we have ceramics, blacksmithing, um, and the welding department which have all really gotten to a point where they can’t really go much further, right now. Like they may need a little more space and a little more time and so on. But I’d like to see the furniture like kinda branch out further, like around the city, like not around the city, but around the state, and who knows where it’ll go from there. I mean, I’ve had some conversations with one of the cofounders and he kinda has these really elaborate goals which are really interesting, like he wants to, you know, wishful thinking and I think he could eventually make it happen but I think he wants to like, one thing he mentioned was setting up a community health center there, on the site, you know, where people from the city could come around. Which I thought was great, you know. Like these are some of his, like bigger goals.
[00:12:26]
Umm, and then of course there’s across the river, where the Streever Brothers are doing a 333 million renovation to all the buildings across from us and turn them into houses and hotels. Um, so let’s see where that goes, cause your gonna have more people, you know, um, also Monnahasset is right next door. So Monna is like lofts, they’re condos, but they’re lofts, it’s an old mill building. They’re renovating it in three phases and basically what it comes down to is everyone pretty much everyone who works or hangs out at the Steelyard lives there plus other people, so everyone knows each other, so it’s pretty much this tight artist community at this point. It’s just growing and growing, but everyone’s like pretty close niched, you know what I mean?
[00:13:17]
So, I see in the future, I see it just getting bigger and bigger and just us being able to expand, you know, bring in more students, bring in more teachers, have like more ground to stand on, you know, hopefully not have to like volunteer for like the next 15 years. You know, like maybe have like a good solid position, have like some health insurance, but you can edit that out. It’s worth it, it’s definitely worth it, cause one of the things I’ve realized in that mission is coming out of school and like, you know, what I am gonna do. And I really like, I thought about that for a week and I’m like, oh, I’ll just do this. And I kinda started doing that.
[00:13:58]
And like I worked at the Red Fez and then as it went on and on and on, I just, you know, I just kinda realized the odds of me finding something like this are like one a bazillion, you know, it’s like, it’s just not heard of that you know, like a metal sculptor would get out of school and you know, have some kind of like community service background and be like, ok, well, I can do what I went to school for and I can use some of the community service skills that I kinda received doing City Year and just being somewhat compassionate in certain situations and take that and turn it into a job, more or less. You know? So, it was cool, it was really cool
[00:14:42]
LT: So, were you doing City Year in Providence?
NN: Um-hm.
LT: And what were you doing with that?
NN: I worked in Olneyville funnily enough, I didn’t move much. I basically did it, cause City Year’s based in Providence, but we do the whole state, so there was like, Woonsocket, Providence, um, Newport, uhh, let me think. I’m trying to think of where else. Wherever else we could do like a flag station. But, um, I did, I worked with junior high kids, basically, um, and I would do calisthenics every morning, which I hated, at 7 o’clock in the morning at Kennedy Plaza, rain, sleet, or snow. But, um, I worked at not Willem Deveit, it was Oliver Hudson Perry, Willem Deveit was um, the uh, elementary school in Olneyville and uh, we’d do like after school programs and community service days and we had like a, I think it was young heroes.
[00:15:42]
Where we’d do like this, I think we’d set up our community service days on weekends, so instead of working Monday thru Friday, we’d work like, you know, Tuesday thru Sunday or we’d just do Saturdays and we’d just, we’d get a coupla kids. And we had a great group of kids, we’d get a coupla kids and they’d come down and uh, do this and that. I actually saw one of them, he was probably the worst one, this kid Ruben, this was years ago now, but I saw him at uh, Murphy’s Deli, and uh, he worked there and uh, I don’t know if he still does, this was months ago now, and I had a conversation with him and it was nice to see that as much as he was like more or less a pain in the ass, you know, 6 or 7 years ago, he had actually evolved into, what seemed like a really decent kid, you know what I mean?
[00:16:25]
So, uh, I bump into kids every once in awhile. It’s tough though cause I get older and older and they get, they still look younger and younger, so when I do don’t know if I, I can’t recognize them, you know if I see em, once I look at em and I’m like. A friend of mine that I did it with he’s got a younger brother, I think he was 6 at the time, he’s like, 15 now, and he was this little kid, now he’s like 6’4”, 260 pounds, like I’m like you know, in such a short time, I would never even recognize him. And he’s a great kid, but now cause we don’t see each other so much, but I see his little brother and I’m like, eehh, Edwin, what’s going on, and I talk to him and he’s still like that little kid to me, you know what I mean? It was kinda funny.
[00:17:09]
LT: So, are you like on a volunteer basis right now at the Steelyard?
NN: Yeah the way it kinda works is um, if… it’s complicated, we’re working on a lot of kinks, you know what I mean? But I basically get to use the studio to do my own work for free. Which is super beneficial. The only downside is that you have to find work, you know whether it’s commissions or it’s like, you know, interior design stuff or you know what I mean, industrial design. But, I get paid for jobs we get, like the garbage cans, like I make a rate for that. Um, or if there’s other things like community, if we build something for like the Streever Bros., who have been really supportive, which is cool. I dunno, cause they just finished up Rising Suns well about a year ago but they’re doing this and that and the other thing. But, so then there’s always like that time when they’re like, we’re gonna pay you this much to do this, you know.
[00:18:05]
It’s more than fair which is great, but at the same time you are doing, it may be easy to me, because I’ve been doing it for 8 or 9 years, but you are dealing with heavy machinery, you’re doing something that not a lot of people can do that well, um, so as grateful as I am I struggle with being like, well I should be getting paid, but at the same time not for running the studio, but just in general.
[00:18:27]
Yeah, we volunteer, more or less. We have small budgets right now, and I’d rather see the budgets, so would everyone else, and I’d rather see the budgets go towards, you know, developing the program, like the welding department. So when students come in, which are adults, mainly, we have the things that they need to learn and make them feel safer and, you know. Um. So, volunteer. But everyone does it. Most people. So.
[00:18:56]
LT: So do you see the condos coming in as a good thing?
NN: Across, Monahasset I think, well I’m moving in there so, it’s a fantastic thing, it’s wonderful! No, I think Monhasset’s really good, I mean, they I’ll just real quick, from what I gather from Monhasset’s like they kinda did this because they saw all this happening years ago, and, they were right, you know that’s what’s happening. When Fort Thunder was across the street, you know what I mean, all these old industrial buildings are gonna be lofts and hotels and they were kinda like well, let’s try to stop this. Now as much as like, uh, a unit over there might be similar, maybe a little cheaper than the price of like another one that they do, um, it’s also in a place where you just have to feel better that they did it to keep the artists in a building that they lived in, and if you can afford it it’s great, and if you can get a subsidized unit it’s great, but if you can’t, I mean you still have to appreciate that they’re trying to keep everyone a little bit more niched, and they’re saying, well we bought this building so that artists could still live here, legally, now, and let’s keep it together and try and build on it and try and build some sort of a community, as opposed to like, across, where like one person’s an English professor, one person’s a party animal, you know and they don’t talk, and like the other lady’s a divorcee, you know, everyone knows each other, it’s cool.
[00:20:25]
But like across the river, I think it’s good and bad in some ways. I think it’s good to see that land get developed, you know. Now if you can retain it’s identity, which they pretty much made ‘em do where Fort Thunder was. Like, you can put a Staples there but it has to be in a brick building with green trim, like every other industrial building. So, it’s got it’s ups and downs, um, the other thing that might happen and it might not, it’s not really, but one thing that Clay was talking about doing in one of the buildings at the Steelyard was making like a bar, café, you know, something like that with a gallery or maybe like a, like a… whatchamacallit, like a retail shop, um, and he was kinda like, that’s one thing he was thinking about doing, which I think might be great actually now, when you’re gonna have all these condos right across the river and there’s gonna be bridges and everyone can come over and people can walk across the street and go get a coffee, go get a beer, walk home. So I think it’s gonna be cool. The other thing that was cool was that Durkey Brown, I believe did they, like, the realistic drawings for it that was in the paper, so you could see what it was gonna look like and uh, they actually put our garbage cans in the blueprint and some of our benches that we might do. So that was pretty exciting, but, I dunno, I just think it’s tough because the market values on some of these places seems… outrageous. But… that’s what the market value is, you know what I mean.
[00:22:01]
LT: So do you think that’s gonna cause any problems for you at the Steelyard?
NN: No, I don’t. I think um, I mean this is my take, like I said, sometimes I’m completely wrong, um, the only thing I see it doing is, um… making people pissed off because we’re loud sometimes, you know what I mean? SO, if you’ve got all these people across the river, which is far enough away that we’re not gonna be lighting bottle rockets off one night and one’s gonna go through someone’s window, um, but I think the good thing is that the more, like I said I could be wrong. I feel like the more residents, the more of a residential area it is, the more awareness you can raise for the Steelyard and the more supporters it can be for the Steelyard. Um, as far as taxes and stuff like that, the non-profit itself doesn’t pay taxes, or if it does, a very small amount, whatever the non-profit guidelines are… So, it’s not like, you know, they build up all these condos and the price to live over there goes up, which means your property tax goes up, which means the Steelyard’s property tax goes up, which means we kinda get consumed by that. That can’t happen. So, that’s a good thing, cause that can be like, you know. It might be zoned, there’s some kinda zoning, I’m not sure exactly how it goes for artists, for like an industrial arts, or just an arts area, I think it goes up to like Westminster, and there’s like tax breaks for renovating, and so and and so on, so…
[00:23:28]
LT: So what kinda work are you doing over there?
NN: ::Sighs:: I dunno. I haven’t had much time to actually like, literally do my own like, fine art work, you know what I’m saying. Like, which is good and bad, because I’ve been busy and I’ve been doing other things and getting better and better and better at what I do and learning how to use different things and do this and that. Um, garbage cans we’ve been doing a lot of those last couple weeks, um, there’s a couple of architects that work, there’s an actually like an office building with like four different offices in it and uh, there’s everyone, it’s really cool, it’s like, cause they’ve got like Tel-Art, where they do this weird ID and like computer programming, and then you have the Watershed Council and the at the bottom you’ve got, I think it’s Truth Box.
[00:24:24]
And one of the guys in there, Peter Case, who’s just like, I think he’s a great guy. He’s had different jobs for me and like, you know, from him I’ve met this person and I’ve basically made my own network, but I’ve made it through the Steelyard, you know, more or less. Like I’ve found people and like really built on that. So I do, I did like a railing for him, um. And then I did like, I’m just sayin, last couple months, I did some gutter guards for Monahasset, cause they’ve got copper drain pipes, like it’s like as much as it’s like uh, like you know, a gutter guard, but the good thing is that I get to design em, and I get to put together my own prototype. And I put it together and you know, I work with these guys and those guys and then I go along and I gotta make a paycheck, you know, sometimes like that’s a concern, you know, that’s a concern. But its like doing these things, you know, it’s keeping my mind moving, more or less. You know what I mean, like I’m not being like, ok I’m mindless, and you know, I’m not just like, I’m gonna weld a line. I’m like, okay, I have to think this out, I have to put a job together. I’m gonna use whatever creativity I have and let that evolve into what this person’s kinda looking for a see if we can, you know, come together on it, and I can build it for him. So it’s cool, so like window grates, stuff like that. Um, and uh, you know, running the studio, so it’s like, you know, it’s a lot sometimes. I’ve been playing with Adobe Illustrator a lot. Cause I can get stuff laser cut, so if I design stuff I can get it laser cut to whatever I want. That’s kinda what I’ve been playing with lately.
[00:26:05]
LT: So not a lot of time for your own work?
NN: ::clears throat:: I like to look at it as a lot of time for thought, instead of actual time to work on it. Um…for what I want to do, for some of the things I did in the past, like you know, um, I have to kind of rearrange my train of thought. And when I have time off I forget, not forget, but I’m always like I should be working in the studio on this, this, and that. So I slowly chip away at, you know, ideas I have in my head, you know, they’ll eventually come together and I’ll be able to put together a new body of work, and then go onto the next idea and put together a new body of work, but I’m not that old, I know I’m like, oh that was years ago, I’m only 27, so it’s not like, so I figured I’m like, I don’t mind, it’s like the Zen master, I’m like okay, I’ll just absorb and learn for three years and then when everything’s said and done, you know, I’ll have all the tools in my head and like equipment wise to build, to know my options, you know what I mean.
[00:27:09]
So it’s like carrying the water jugs up the stairs for two years and then like put them down, it’ll be so much easier to go up and down the stairs without em, you know. I’ve learned so much there, that’s the best, the best part about it is like it’s just like this complete melting part, you know. Well, the unfortunate part is that 99% of the people there are artists so everyone has their own idea and no one wants to give in on that idea and that’s what happens when you deal with artists. I’m just as guilty as everyone else. Um, but, the best part about it is that everyone there learns from one another. I can honestly say I learned more about everything there in 2 years than in my 6 years of college, which was actually just for a bachelors, you can edit that, no. ::chuckles:: I had to, I had to take semesters, you know, I was working, going part time, so, but all in all what I’ve learned there in 2 years is probably quadruple what I learned in school that whole time, you know, so it’s been really cool.
[00:28:12]
LT: So what kind of people do you have coming out as students?
NN: Uh, we get, total, like, you know, we get a 16 year old girl to like a 65 guy that retired, you know what I mean, as far as like the students that come into the welding workshops, people seem to be very interested in those. In a sense, I think last year we taught 130 people how to weld between me and Howie and maybe Dave Sharp, he’s the project coordinator, I think. But he, uh, between him and me and Howie, and Peter, but me and Howie pretty much took the ropes for the classes last year, and uh, you get such a diverse group, you know what I mean, it’s like, this lady Catherine, I think she teaches at Brown, but like she came in, and there was actually a Brown student that came in, um, lotta, actually a lot of Brown students, now that I think about it. You go to Brown, right?
LT: Yeah.
[00:29:13]
NN: Obviously. Um, but now that I think about it it’s like we’ve had a few, you know, I can remember a distinct amount of Brown students, which is good, because it’s not as overwhelming, I mean especially if you have a heavy load of classes, it’s not as overwhelming as going to RISD if there’s any kind of mutual classes, and taking like a 3 month class on like, you know what I mean. You come in as like a crash course and then you know what you’re doing. If you want to take a six week class, you take a six week class, you know, so we definitely get, oh, you know, you name it, all the way down the line. We even get some people who know how to weld they just want to see what the Steelyard’s all about, so, okay, cool. Cause you can help me teach, you know.
[00:30:05]
LT: So, how does the Steelyard work within Providence? Are there a lot of other organizations that you’re working with?
NN: Actually, like, from what I, like from what I said it’s slowly becoming office… studio. Like it will never be completely separate, but, like you know like, you just kinda, if you know, because it’s a community, if you want information, you have to rely on people. Like no one’s gonna be like, we’re working with this organization now, you know what I mean, which is good, because it gets people to interact more, but we work with AS220, but AS220 is, we work with Broad Street Studios mostly, which is their kinda kids program, like charter. And that uh, I’m trying to, um, the Broad Street Studios, the Met School, you know, Chris Kane, who runs the bronze casting studio, is kinda like the person to go to for that, he teaches at this new school in Pawtucket that’s all, um, it’s all Freshman, but it’s only an art school. Art, dance, and music that they put together in the old Pawtucket armory, you know. What was the question again? I lost my train of though…
[00:31:18]
LT: I was just asking if you work with other organizations.
NN: Oh yeah. So, I mean, as much as we’re linked, we’re not linked, but we are, you know, I think, uh, the Agenda, we share the Agenda rents a little bit of office space from us, you know, uh, the newspaper, you know what I’m talking about, it’s like a little newspaper. Uh, I think, I’m not really sure, but I think the Hive, another non-profit, they might rent a little office space from us, just to have a like a basic like a you know, like a place that they know they can have an office, like I don’t think they need too much office space right now. Uh, but having those people there we kinda coexist with one another, in a sense where like you know, we talk about this, that, and the other thing, like if the Agenda wants to write a thing about the Steelyard, all she has to do is turn around and be like, so, you know what I mean, cause there’s no walls in the office, there’s just desks, which, you know, like I think is cool. Cause everyone’s just kinda, as much as I go up there and bug everyone, when I take a break I’m just kinda covered in dirt and I’m like, hey, how’s it goin? And they’re like, uhhh, Jesus!
[00:32:28]
But….um, I think we’re willing, you know, I really feel like it’s so idealistic, in like a good way, in like a workable way, oddly enough. But I feel when it comes down to it we willing to work with like anyone who has anything positive to offer, you know what I mean? Umm, that’s my take on it, you know. We get a lot of RISD, we get like work study kids from RISD, which is nice because we’re getting these kids to help out, but they’re also, I mean, if I was in school I’d love to have that like my work study was like going down to the Steelyard on Fridays. Like you’re working, but look where you’re doing it. You’re not like sitting in like the Metcalf store, selling glass, you know what I mean.
[00:33:15]
So, yeah, I think we’re willing to work with anyone who can bring anything positive to it.
[00:33:21]
LT: So, you’ve been talking a lot about like kids? Like, what do you mean by kids?
NN: Oh, well the RISD kids…
LT: Oh, well like, not the RISD kids, but, you know, the other kids?
NN: Umm… they’re uh, they’re high school kids. I think the uh, Broad Street Studios, I really don’t know, so I hate to say it. I think a lot of the kids, um, have been in like juvenile detention centers. I’m not sure, and I always kinda ask, and I even ask like the people that run it, but I think that half the kids you would never guess, and the other kids you’d just think they were normal kids who were like a pain in the ass, but with me, I think I have a great time with them. And Howie, he was the other kinda guy that did it; we both had nothing but good things to say about all of them. So, those are the kids, I guess.
[00:34:13]
And then there’s the Met School. Um, and Chris is bringing is class down next Tuesday, I think, and we’re gonna show them a few demos, like a bronze pour, and him and Howie are gonna do some sculptural stuff, like welding or something like that, so, cool. That answer your question?
[00:34:31]
LT: I don’t even know what to ask now. I think I’m running out of questions. Umm…
NN: Did I say as far as the Steelyard being centered in Providence? I think you actually asked me that one, I think I kinda… I think I kinda got off track there, but I think I did answer that. But I think it would be nice to kinda see it like, you know, at least see it take on different roles throughout the state, you know. Whether it be Pawtucket, you know, Central Falls, wherever, but over time, it would be nice to see. Providence is sustaining us at this point, not to say like, we’re not gonna burn any bridges, but eventually like Providence can only sustain us so much, like if we want to continue growing, you know?
LT: Right.
[00:35:24]
NN: So, then we can start shipping garbage cans to the Czech Republic or something. I’m just kidding. Just joking.
LT: Well, what about the other people that are working at the Steelyard? Like all the artists you mentioned before? What are they doing?
[00:35:49]
NN: Um…
LT: Like, what kind of work?
NN: Well, well I mentioned Howie. Howie’s main thing right now, well as far as I can see, is the public art projects, like the urban furniture, that’s what I would say. Um, there’s Chris Cane, and then there’s Wright, this guy Wright, and this girl, Corinne, are kinda his you know, assistant slash like, uh helpers, but not helpers, like they’re both talented so they both bring their own kinda skills to the table. Um, and they’re been doing a lot of bronze casting. Um, they’re gonna be doing more and more which is good. Different commissions. They’re doing a giant Fanny the Elephant. Which, Fanny the Elephant was, which I grew up right near Slater Park, they used to have an elephant, and um, they’re putting like a life sized bronze Fanny the Elephant in the park, which is like this, you know what I mean, it’s huge. I think, you know what I mean.
Um, there’s uh, ceramics is Dave, Alan, and Meredith. And they, Dave’s been doing some work, he been kinda, you know, doing his own thing. Meredith hasn’t been in there too much, but the thing is is that the ceramics studio is like, our studio, picture it this way, whatever temperature it is at night, that’s what temperature it is inside the studio all day. So if it’s 25 degrees at night and it’s 45 degrees outside, it’s still 25 degrees inside the studio until like 4 o’clock. Same with um, in the mornings mainly, same with like, the summertime if it’s 70 degrees at night, and 95 during the day, in the morning it will be 70 but as the day goes on it’ll go up and up. So it’s kinda brutal, you can’t do ceramics in there. Um, so they’ll be in there more, like ceramics classes will start pickin up. People like those, too.
[00:37:40]
Um, there’s also Chris Vencini, who runs the glass, um the small glass department we have now, which we’ll kinda build on, which I think is kinda interesting. I might actually take his class. Um, he’s working on a commission. Um…who else is there? Oh, Lou, Lou Heinz, she’s a blacksmith. Ah, head of the blacksmith department. She just had her own show; I’m not exactly sure what gallery it was in. But I guess it went really well, she does some really neat stuff. I wouldn’t say neat, it’s definitely like, I mean, working with metal, I look at it and I’m sure if I worked with metal the way she does, that eventually I would understand how she does it. But, knowing how hard it is, I look at some of the stuff she does in blacksmithing and I look at it and I go, she did that! You know what I mean, that’s cool. It’s cool.
[00:38:31]
Um, Dave Cole, uhh, he’s working with some really cool stuff. He’s more of just a friend of the Steelyard, let’s say. He’s been around since before, he used to live with one of the cofounders. And he has a studio down the street, at AJ Lane. And he does some neat stuff, right now I think he’s… he might not want, he’s kinda weird. I don’t know if he wants me to tell you what he’s working on, he’ll wait for the unveiling. He’s doin some cool stuff.
[00:39:59]
And then we have, like, um, residents, so to speak. More like ceramics. We have a small room where we move ceramics for the winter, but it’s not really big enough to sustain you know, 4 or 5 people. There’s some people working in there, which is good. Just kinda doing their own thing, um, I’m trying to think, who else? Uh, we just had Boris Bally did a couple of garbage, have you ever heard of him?
LT: Um-hmm.
NN: He did a couple of garbage cans with us. The last ones we did. That’s another, I can’t tell you what he did, you’ll have to see it yourself. You’re definitely gonna say, okay, now I know why he didn’t mention it. But that’s going out, I believe, it’s going out in front of the courthouse on South Main, so… if you’re down there, which is right down the road, at any time in the next couple of months or so, take a look, and you’ll be like ohhh… hey! A little mystery in the air. Uh, but, umm… his assistant too, this kid, Curtis, who is pretty interesting alongside as far as Bally is, uh, he did, Boris gave him one of his cans to do, because he got 5 cans, and he did a really nice job. He took all motor and like engine parts, cause that’s kinda his thing, and put them together. It came out really nice and he’s supposed to do some work in the studio too. It’s like we let people use the studio if we have the time, you know.
[00:40:28]
Um… I’m trying to think of what else is going on. We have our Spring Gala coming up, which is interesting. Um, it’s basically just our spring fundraiser, you know what I mean. April 29, I believe, it’s a Saturday. You can buy tickets… no, I’m just kidding! ::laughs:: Um, that should be interesting because we get a good turn out. Last year we had a lot of good people, a lot of interesting people um, it was a good time, everyone had fun. And we kinda pushed some of our merchandise. Which, we have like, I wouldn’t say merchandise, like propaganda, in that sense, but we have some interesting like, we have these old nails, that are basically just like long triangles, it’s not like what you think of a nail now. And they’re from the building from you know, a hundred years ago, and it’s built. Uh, this guy Dan Campbell’s kinda the jewelry guy down there. He’s older, he’s a nice guy, we call him Mad Dog. Or Campbell’s security, cause he kinda watches over the yard when no one’s around.
[00:41:26]
But he made these really neat earrings, him and Clay came up with them, I think. Or, him, Clay and Monnie, I’m not sure. But, they’re the nails and they’re soldered with a little pin and they have um, like a coating over them, so you know, obviously it’s kinda, it’s an old rusty nail. So they, and uh, we actually have some of those over at Martina and Co. Um, we put out a call to artists for designing a t-shirt in December and uh, this kid, I forget his name, this kid, a nice kid, is our vista, Enucha’s friend or roommate, you know and they’re both really cool. And she, uh, he did this design, you have to see it, but it’s this t-shirt, and I think it’s fantastic, it’s like this guy welding, it was just, it’s black and white, you know what I mean, and instead of the sparks coming up, it’s all these like Steelyard wrenches. He really put it together well, but that’s like something cool that we just kinda went through. Um, as far as like products, what can I say? But, there’s always something going one.
[00:42:32]
We also have Mid Ocean Studios, which is Brauer Hatcher and all his guys, um, and Brauer is like, his stuff, um, he’s definitely got his system down, like he does large scale. He rents studio space, which he rents a huge studio where he’s got like 4 or 5 guys working for him at a time just building em, and then he’s got guys who design em, guys who help him find grants, he does state commissions all over the country, which is really cool. Um, and he does some really nice stuff. He’s definitely got a system. But it’s good to see, to come down there, and that’s one of the first things I do sometimes, when I have a class. I bring em down to Brauer’s space because they can see like when you’ve got a piece of sculpture in there that’s maybe 18 feet high and like 18 feet wide and to see like the massiveness of something like that and it kinda gets people thinking. Like, obviously they not like, I’m gonna build something that big! But they can see like some of the possibilities, like that’s one I like to kinda of press on everyone when they first come in there. If they don’t have any real background in metalworking or sculptures, like there’s so many possibilities to it, you know what I mean?
[00:43:46]
It’s always, I go down there and bother those guys at least once a day. But I always like going down there, just because they’re all great guys, but also because I like to see what they’re working on. Which is something different every day. They use like, they use stainless steel which we don’t really use because it’s you know, much more difficult to work with and they’re using stainless steel, but they’re using, they had a circle out in front there the other day that was the base for one of the pieces, it’s 28 feet in diameter. But you’re just like- what the hell are you guys?? You know what I mean? But they know what they’re doing, you know, it’s cool.
[00:44:20]
LT: Do you feel a lot of give and take with people, working there? Like, you know, them influencing each other, or…
NN: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Everyone, I think the greatest part is that everyone just tries to give what they can, you know. It may be minimal, but that only means that someone can only afford, not financially, or anything, but just in general, to give that much. But there’s times when people can give that same person might be able to give more, and they will. Like everyone tries to give what they can and tries to get it, and is trying to get it to what it needs to be. You know, it wouldn’t have gotten as far as it’s gotten this far unless, like, you know, everyone was a little idealistic. So, it’s neat. So…
[00:45:10]
LT: I guess that’s about it. I don’t have anymore questions.
NN: You gotta type all that, too, huh?
LT: Yeah.
NN: Sorry.
LT: Don’t apologize.
[00:45:20]