The Crucible is a nonprofit industrial arts

Industrial arts

Industrial Arts is an umbrella term originally conceived in the late 19th century to describe educational programs which featured fabrication of objects in wood and/or metal using a variety of hand, power, or machine tools...

 school in Oakland, California

Oakland, California

Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...

. Established in Berkeley

Berkeley, California

Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...

 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 while serving as an accessible arts venue for the general public.

The Crucible has classes in blacksmithing, ceramics, enameling, fire performance, foundry, glass, hot wheels, jewelry, kinetics & electronics, machine shop, moldmaking, neon & light, stone working, textiles, welding, woodworking, and other industrial arts with an average of 5,000 students each 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

Fire Arts Festival

Each July The Crucible arts education center in Oakland, California holds the Fire Arts Festival, which celebrates creativity through fire and light with a spectacular open-air exhibition of interactive fire art, performance and the largest collection of outdoor fire sculpture on the West Coast...

  held in July.

As a nonprofit organization, The Crucible relies on annual membership donations, grants and individual donations, in addition to tuition, and thrives from an active community of volunteers.

Youth & Community Program

The Crucible Youth Program explores multidisciplinary subject areas and 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!

This program includes weekend and afterschool classes, camps, and field trips. These 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 and are inspired to make connections between arts and science.

Earn-A-Bike Program

This workshop is designed to give 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 also holds 'Bike Fix-a-thon' workshops where youth and their families can learn abut bike maintenance and safety.

Educational Response Vehicle (ERV)

The Crucible's Educational Response Vehicle (ERV) is a 1960 International Harvester fire engine, repurposed as a demonstration platform for industrial and fire arts. In full operation, ERV can support simultaneous demonstrations of:

• Blacksmithing
• Arc Welding
• Oxy-acetylene torch cutting
• Glass Flameworking

Fire Arts Festival

Each July The Crucible’s Fire Arts Festival celebrates creativity through fire and light with a spectacular open-air exhibition of interactive fire art, performance and the largest collection of outdoor fire sculpture on the West Coast. The Fire Arts Festival is a major fundraising event, and proceeds benefit The Crucible’s arts education programs for youth and adults.

Fire Operas ^TM and Fire Ballets ^TM

In the past the Crucible has staged full-length performances of the following shows:

• Jan 2009: DRACUL, Prince of Fire
• April 2008: FIREBIRD: "L'oiseau de feu"
• Jan 2007: ROMEO & JULIET
• Jan 2006: SEVEN DEADLY SINS
• Jan 2004: DIDO & AENEAS by Henry Purcell

Fashion Shows

The Crucible has put on the following fashion shows:

• Jan 2008: HOT COUTURE - A Fusion of Fire & Fashion
• April 2007: INDUSTRIAL CHIC -Fashion + Art Show and Preview

Studio Access with the CREATE program

CREATE stands for the Crucible’s Expanded Access to Tools & Equipment. The Crucible offers the opportunity to use their tools and equipment through the CREATE program. After passing studio area check-outs, current and past students can use The Crucible’s tools and equipment during regular studio hours.

Corporate Teambuilding

The Crucible offers several workshops designed to inspire and encourage teamwork and fresh approaches to problem solving. The goal of each workshop is for the team to design and produce their own unique work of art. Each team creates something to take home.

Die Moto

Die Moto is a custom-built performance diesel motorcycle that has set the world speed record for diesel motorcycles at 130.614 mph. Capable of running on diesel, biodiesel

Biodiesel

Biodiesel refers to a vegetable oil- or animal fat-based diesel fuel consisting of long-chain alkyl esters. Biodiesel is typically made by chemically reacting lipids with an alcohol....

, or straight vegetable oil (SVO) fuels, Die Moto was designed and fabricated at The Crucible by a team of environmentally conscious vehicle enthusiasts, engineers and artisans. The Die Moto team is out to prove the viability of alternative fuel technology in performance vehicles, and with emissions 78% less than a standard diesel engine at speeds over 130 mph, they’re succeeding. As fuel efficiency and low emissions become increasingly important, diesel technology has responded with improved mileage and easy adaptation to biodiesel and SVO. The team of volunteers, known as The Diesel Dozen, crafted Die Moto from BMW R1150RT motorcycle parts, replacing the motor with a high performance BMW automotive diesel engine found only in Europe.

External links

• The Crucible
• Reviews of The Crucible at Yelp
  Yelp
  Yelp, Inc. is a company that operates yelp.com, a social networking, user review, and local search web site. Yelp.com has more than 54 million monthly unique visitors as of late 2010.- History :...