The Crucible, a cherished arts hub and school that occupies a massive 56,000-square-foot building in West Oakland, has abruptly closed. The closure, announced on Sunday, Oct. 25, was described as a temporary measure driven by financial difficulties.
The 27-year-old school and maker space employs over a hundred staff and faculty who teach industrial arts including welding, blacksmithing, glass flameworking and ceramics. It offers studio rental to working artists and hundreds of classes each year serving thousands of community members from all ages and backgrounds in a sprawling hive of a space filled with welding sparks and the buzz of circular saws. The Crucible offers dozens of youth day camps, from enamel work to blacksmithing to skateboard building, as well as a vast array of adult classes from indigo dyeing to spoon carving to glass blowing.
The arts hub, which first opened in West Berkeley in 1999, moved to West Oakland in 2003 and has left an imprint on the city. In March, artists and metalworkers from the organization handcrafted a key to the city that Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee presented to Olympic medal winner Alyssa Liu. In May, members of the foundry department designed a Fieldwork Beer Batter Bell for the Oakland Ballers.
On Saturday, Oct. 24, The Crucible’s over 100, staff, faculty and department heads received an unexpected email from interim executive director Doug Yeiser that read in part:…