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Exhibit highlights workforce development, reinforces the role of arts education in career readiness
By Juliet Martinez, managing editor
An exhibit at Pittsburgh International Airport is putting art from local metalworking students before a global audience. Local teenagers created the art as part of the Industrial Arts Workshop Summer Welding Bootcamp.
The exhibit that opened in January includes delicate flowers, a butterfly, a person holding a heart, and a pair of clasping hands. They all spring from the students’ imaginations and are all made of metal.
The students learned metalworking for free at Industrial Arts Workshop on Dyke Street in Hazelwood. Students ages 14 to 18 gather there to learn welding, develop as artists and gain job skills in a growing field.
The American Welding Society has projected a need for 330,000 new welding professionals by 2028. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts jobs for welders, cutters, solderers and brazers will grow by 2% from 2023 to 2033.
Industrial Arts Workshop is preparing young people to step into those roles. In December, eight students from the nonprofit’s After School Welding Lab earned the American Welding Society’s D1.1 certification, known as the ASW D.1.1. This certification shows a student’s ability to perform a specific kind of weld on a test plate in a specific position. Maura Bainbridge, Industrial Arts Workshop’s assistant director, explained in a Feb. 11 email that students use the same test plate in different positions to gain further certifications.
This entry-level credential certifies a student to work on structural steel. Most welding students achieve it after high school, Ms. Bainbridge wrote. Earning it in high school gives students a head start if they want to enter a metalworking career.
Aaron Kellam is one of the featured artists who has earned his AWD D.1.1. The artist's statement with his piece, “Bug,” indicates that his time in the welding studio has given him more than job readiness.
“I like welding. Doing something I like has taken a little bit of stress off of me. I learned how to make art pieces and the technical side of welding,” he wrote.
Other artists’ statements show the program’s benefits. One artist wrote that the program helped them learn to listen better, be more responsible and more sociable. Another’s statement said they found out they loved working with their hands.
“[Industrial Arts Workshop] is more than a training program,” said Tim Kaulen, the program’s executive director. “It’s a launchpad for youth empowerment. Our students not only gain hands-on skills but also develop teamwork, confidence and creative problem-solving abilities that extend far beyond a welding booth.”
The display at Pittsburgh International Airport is one of several projects the program has launched. According to a Jan. 31 press statement, Industrial Arts Workshop has also collaborated with organizations like the Community College of Allegheny County. This allows them to increase access to technical training for underrepresented groups. Upcoming initiatives reflect the organization’s approach to workforce development, building technical skills along with emotional and social resilience. It now has a partnership with Carlow University to develop trauma-informed teaching practices. The nonprofit will also collaborate with Chicago Women in the Trades to support an all-female cohort through federal grant funding.
Learn more about Industrial Arts Workshop by visiting iawpgh.org or emailing Mr. Kaulen at tim.kaulen@iawpgh.org.
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