As a teenager growing up in Pittsburgh’s North Side, Bill Strickland was not much different from other kids in the neighborhood. That was true until, one morning in school, he passed the open door to the art room where teacher Frank Ross was working on the potter’s wheel. Awestruck by the sight of a skilled artisan raising and forming the walls of an urn, Strickland approached the teacher. Over the coming months, the relationship that Ross and Strickland initiated with a revolving mound of clay began to give form to the future vision of Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild.

Ross was not a typical teacher. He brought jazz records from his personal collection to play for students and shared stories about the great legacy of Pittsburgh’s jazz community. Through the music, he drew connections to the clay artist’s essential challenges: balance, harmony, intuition, improvisation, flow and structure. On visits to their home for dinner, Strickland experienced how the Ross family’s way of life was enriched by aesthetic sensibilities. Hand-woven tapestries adorned the walls. After dinner coffee, sipped from a handmade cup evoked conversations and laughter. As he gained mastery over the potter’s art, Strickland also began to experience success in school. Teachers could see that Strickland’s newfound self-confidence began to transfer first to his self-image and then to his abilities as a student. With Frank Ross’ assistance, Strickland gained admission to the University of Pittsburgh.

In 1968, Pittsburgh was a city racially divided and economically distressed. Strickland established Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild to help combat the economic and social devastation experienced by the residents of his predominantly African-American North Side neighborhood. Originally located in a residential row house on Buena Vista Street in Pittsburgh’s Mexican War Streets district, Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild initially offered an informal art program and exhibition space for inner-city minority children. Strickland and his father built a kiln in a garage and acquired a few potters wheels. Photography was soon added to address the interests of community members and because Strickland understood that artists needed good pictures to promote and help sell their work. Grants from federal employment programs and Pennsylvania Council on the Arts soon made it possible to hire part-time teaching artists for both the Ceramics and Photography studios.

Because of his successful track record with Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild, Strickland was asked to assume the leadership of Bidwell Training Center, a vocational education program in the same community. In the mid-1980s, Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild received a $250,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts requiring a three to one match. This grant was a key component of a 7.5 million dollar capital campaign to construct of a 62,000 square foot vocational training and arts center. Opened in 1987, this facility offered vastly improved and expanded studios as well as a 350-seat concert hall, classrooms and workshops. By the 1995-1996 school year, over 350 high school students from communities throughout the City of Pittsburgh regularly participated in Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild after-school programs. During the day, staff artists reached an additional thousand students by going into the schools.

Today Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild is a multi-discipline learning community whose programs include MCG Jazz, MCG Youth and the Denali Initiative. The vision of Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild takes place in settings throughout Pittsburgh and has captured the attention of those rebuilding urban communities throughout the country. MCG Jazz offers performances and educational activities with artists who represent both the history and future of jazz music. In 1988, the hall was equipped with high quality audio and video recording capability. The outstanding acoustics of the hall have enabled Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild to accumulate over three hundred hours of unique performances. In 1990, several notable performers agreed to donate the rights of recorded cuts for MCG Jazz’s first public release, an anthology CD entitled “A New Home”. The next recording, “Count Basie Orchestra Directed by Grover Mitchell with New York Voices” astounded the recording industry at the 39th annual Grammy awards where it won in the category of best large ensemble live recording.

From 1995-98, Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild continued to forge relationships with other non-profit centers through the Community Development Corporation/Arts Resource Initiative. This program, designed for leaders of community development corporations, initiated a national audience of leaders to the concept of enhancing and revitalizing the economic, physical, social and human conditions of their communities by promoting enterprise and education through arts and culture. Today, the Denali Initiative offers a fellowship program for non-profit executives who wish to develop social entrepreneurship ventures in their home communities. Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild has become a destination point for individuals interested in studying and celebrating community development through the arts. Visitors in recent years include former First Lady and current Senator, Hillary Rodham Clinton, former director of the National Endowment for the Arts, Jane Alexander, and former president of the United States, George Bush. Bill Strickland’s vision of healthy communities created through culture and enterprise continues to expand the scope of Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild and usher in new ventures