Manchester Craftsmen's Guild
1815 Metropolitan StreetPittsburghPA
15233-2233412-322-1773412-321-2120

Program: Arts Apprenticeship Training Program Year Started: 1986 Focus: Visual Arts Youth Served: 350 Ages: 11-19 Budget: $778,000 The Manchester Craftsmen's Guild is a multicultural arts education and performance organization located in one of the poorest neighborhoods of Pittsburgh. In place for the past 27 years, the Guild conducts classes in visual arts, with a focus on ceramic art and photography, and in the performing arts, with an emphasis on jazz. Educational activities as well as presentations by living masters are offered in each discipline. The facilities include a ceramics studio, photography laboratories and studio, a gallery and a music hall. The Arts Apprenticeship Training Program at the Guild teaches inner-city youth drawn from public schools the technical and aesthetic elements of ceramic art, computer imaging, drawing, painting and photography. Recently, teen artists created an on-line Internet art exhibition of their own masterpieces, including selections of original ceramics, drawing, painting, photography and computer imaging. Students receive counseling and college outreach services. From 74 percent to 80 percent of participants in the Apprenticeship Program go on to college, compared to 20 percent in the community. The Guild also runs an artist-in-residence program in 11 area high schools as well as a summer arts program. The Guild is part of a complex of nonprofit and for-profit subsidiaries, including The Bidwell Training Center, The Business and Industrial Development Corporation and Bidwell Food Services.