Back in the mid-1960s Bill Strickland was a directionless public school student in Pittsburgh who didn’t really see a path for success for him or his fellow lower class, minority student friends. Then, one day he walked past a classroom and saw a teacher sitting at a pottery wheel — and that moment, and how he responded to it, changed his life. And since then has changed the lives of countless young people not only in Pittsburgh, but around the country and beyond.
In 1968 — at the age of just 21 — Strickland founded Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild Youth & Arts with a goal of giving kids in his neighborhood a safe alternative to the streets. He began with a few ceramics wheels in a basement, and over the five decades since has grown it to become a world class, nonprofit art center, and jobs training center, and performance and recording space for world class performers.
Manchester Bidwell Corporation (MBC) takes seemingly disparate elements — adult career training, youth arts education, jazz presentation and botanical sales (they grow orchids) — and combines them into a program with a proven record of positively changing the lives of underserved populations. Bill has helped start an additional 13 centers, including five in Pennsylvania, 6 in other US states, 1 in Puerto Rico, and 1 in Israel.
Mr. Strickland is also a recipient of a MacArthur Fellows “Genius” Grant, and author of the book “Making the Impossible Possible.”
He stopped by the studio on his way to the airport after giving the keynote address at the Lightbulb Series event presented by the Edison Awards and Collaboratory.
Click here to watch Bill's TED Talk when Herbie Hancock accompanied him on the piano.
And click here to watch him on an episode of Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood.
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