Cities of Steel, Cities of Rust

The cities of Baltimore and Pittsburgh were both forged in the American Industrial Revolution, producing and shipping steel, textiles, and coal in the nineteenth century. Today both cities are finding their way towards post-industrial futures; health care and education play outsized economic roles in each. Both gritty cities are characterized by strong neighborhood feeling. Both are mixes of nineteenth-century industrial architecture, dotted with mansions once owned by industrial leaders, such as Hackerman House (Baltimore) and the Frick House (Pittsburgh). Baltimore has its iconic Bromo-Seltzer Tower while Pittsburgh enjoys the Heinz Factory, elaborate structures from the cities’ manufacturing pasts, now re-purposed. Both cities are home to lively communities of metalsmiths and jewelers.

 

This collaborative project paired artists from the Baltimore Jewelry Center’s Peer Group with those from the Allegheny Metals Collective. Each artist chose a site with personal or iconic significance in their city and started a piece referencing it; they then swapped and completed work made by the artist in the other city. Exchanging partially-realized pieces helped break through assumptions as artists considered how to develop and execute each others’ initial conceptions. The exhibition speaks to commonalities in the cities’ experiences and to the connections fostered between two artistic communities.