You won’t see a 6-year-old wielding a blowtorch, but you will see youngsters making jewelry and working with clay at a newly launched childcare program at The Steel Yard (TSY) in on Sims Ave in Providence’s Industrial Valley. The program is free for parents and caregivers who are instructors or students at the nonprofit industrial arts center and shared studio, whose 3.8-acre campus is located at 27 Sims Avenue.
“We’d gotten the idea to offer childcare from talking with some parent groups, and our instructors who are parents or caregivers,” said Nyala Honda, TSY’s education manager. “And we’ve expanded the types and number of courses, too.”
From September through December, childcare for ages 4-12 will be available on Tuesday nights as their parents take, or teach, such classes as Intro to Metalsmithing, Forging a Stylish Hairpin (S1), Guided Open Studio in Welding, Watercolor and Welding, Bugging Out: A Night of Welding, and Metal Botanicals.
“For Watercolor and Welding, participants will build a sculpture. Then, they’ll draw it, and paint it in watercolor,” Honda explained.
For the childcare program, TSY partnered with the Teaching + Learning in Art and Design (TLAD) Department of Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). While their parents are in class, the children will get art and design lessons from RISD students.
“There will be a few weeks of making jewelry, followed by the children working with clay. And drawing and painting lessons will be offered to them, too,” Honda said. She recently gave a presentation to RISD students about the program, which will switch to Thursday nights come January 2026 and run through May.
On Monday nights, TSY will give a 20 percent discount to service workers attending classes in Hammersmithing, Intro to Wire Wrapping, Clay to Table, Enameling 101 (S1) taught by Nicholas Hesson, Creative Welding taught by Kendra Plumley, and Hands in Clay.
“We call it Industry Night, and it’s geared toward folks who work in coffee shops, restaurants, and bars,” Honda said. “CJ Jimenez, one of our staff members, came up with the idea. The classes will be oriented toward making things like knives, tableware, and drinking vessels you find in restaurants.”
There will also be a blacksmithing class called Forging for Foodies, taught by Willow Zeitmam, in which attendees will be able to make such utensils as chopsticks, a spatula, and a lobster cracker, this being New England after all.
“We have 40 people who are able to teach, or propose a course,” Honda detailed. “Our instructors are really amazing. Everyone loves their craft, and teaching others.”
For instance, Fred Gorman got TSY’s ceramics program off the ground 10 years ago, and continues to teach the craft.
Ceramics brought Honda to The Yard. While teaching at Thornton Elementary School in Johnston, RI, she became an artist in residence in ceramics. She left Thornton last May to become education manager.
“I had studied art education, and as much as I loved K-12 education, I wanted to be an instructor here in ceramics,” she said.
Honda spoke highly of professional development opportunities for instructors, and cited the tutelage of Courtnie Wolfgang, an associate professor at TLAD who serves on STY’s Board of Directors.
Courses at The Yard run the gamut from 3-hour taster classes, to all-day weekend workshops, to multi-week courses covering a wide range of skills in ceramics, jewelry, welding, and blacksmithing.
There are project-based classes as well. At one end of STY’s 12,000 sq. ft. studio, public projects such as colorful bike racks and waste receptacles for PVD are made. Justin Figueroa, one of the main fabricators, and others are currently working on the metal frames of wheelchair accessible tables.
In addition, The Yard is introducing courses in Chain Weaving, taught by Iz Dungan, Intro to Metalsmithing, taught by Anne Irving, Welded Time Capsules, taught by Flora Ranis, and Pour and Gather: Vessels to Help us Party, taught by Prinshu Gautam.
In ceramics, TSY will add Figure Building, in which instructor Chantel Bollinger will teach students how to sculpt the human form.
“When it comes to craft, what we do here is teach our students that they have to work at it,” Honda explained, “and that they have to learn to be present in the moment as they’re creating, and especially to think about what they’re doing.”
She concluded, “It feels so good to watch people try something, and see their faces when they really get it.”
Full and partial scholarships and QT/BIPOC discounts are listed on thesteelyard.org