Craft Around the Country

A Pittsburgh Initiative Aims to Promote the City as a Craft Hub

Pittsburgh IS Craft, a new initiative spearheaded by Contemporary Craft, the Pittsburgh Glass Center, and Union Project, draws on the city’s industrial history to support craft artists.

By Kate Schuler
May 18, 2026

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Craft industry

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Photo by Nathan Shaulis

Artists working at Pittsburgh Glass Center, one of the key partners in Pittsburgh IS Craft.

Pittsburgh once produced more than half the country’s steel, glass, and aluminum. Now, the local craft community believes they have a big role to play in the cultural and economic future of the city.

Pittsburgh IS Craft, a new initiative launched publicly in April, aims to promote the city as a national and international craft destination. Spearheaded by Contemporary Craft, the Pittsburgh Glass Center, and the Union Project ceramics center, the initiative will also support local artists, engage the community, and work to create a central “craft district.”

“Pittsburgh has always been a city that makes things,” says Rachel Saul Rearick, executive director of Contemporary Craft. “And right now, a lot of what we’re making is craft.”

Photo by Nathan Shaulis

Contemporary Craft's executive director, Rachel Rearick, is joined by board and community members and Leila Carter from the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft for Craft Contemporary's expansion ribbon cutting ceremony.

The launch coincides with major expansions of two of these key cultural centers. Both Contemporary Craft and the Pittsburgh Glass Center have doubled the physical footprint of their downtown buildings in the past two years. New workshops, studios, galleries, and facilities for visiting artists mean the infrastructure is in place to attract more national artists, students, and tourists.

“All of the pieces are here, so it feels like the right time to say to the craft community, ‘You can make Pittsburgh your home,’” says Rearick. “Or at the very least, you should put it on your list to visit.”

Pittsburgh’s artists may not all have experienced the city at the height of its industrial power before the steel mills shuttered in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but many grew up around the factories and mills that once produced steel, glass, aluminum, tin, iron, and brass.

“We know this material,” says Rearick, adding that artists are bringing that industrial history into their creative practice and making something joyful from it.

Photo by Nathan Shaulis

Kate Davidson, an apprentice in the wood studio, works at Contemporary Craft.

Kate Schuler is a potter, writer, and editor based in Washington, DC.

Learn more about Pittsburgh IS Craft online.

Website

This article was made possible with support from the Windgate Foundation.

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