The Beginning
Bill Strickland established Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild in 1968 to help combat the effects of economic and social devastation experienced by the youth of his inner-city Pittsburgh neighborhood. Just as the introduction to art had helped to change the course of his life, Strickland hoped art would inspire similar change in his community. Located in a residential row house, Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild initially offered informal ceramics classes and a small exhibition space.
The program soon expanded to address the interests of community members and began to gain the notice of Pittsburgh’s civic leaders. 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 serving mostly displaced steel workers from the same community.
Building on its Strengths
In 1986, after leading a $6.5 million capital campaign, Strickland opened a new 62,000 square foot arts and career training center. This facility offered vastly improved and expanded studios as well as classrooms, workshops, gallery spaces, and a 350-seat auditorium. The center currently provides training in fields as varied as gourmet food preparation, chemical, office, and medical technologies, and education arts programming in ceramics, photography, and digital imaging. In addition, the center presents nationally acclaimed jazz performances, and its own jazz recording label has produced four Grammy-winning CDs out of five nominated for the award.
Bringing it All Together
On October 1, 1999, Manchester Bidwell Corporation was incorporated as the parent organization of Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild, Bidwell Training Center, and Manchester Bidwell Development Trust. The formation of Manchester Bidwell Corporation created organizational stabilization and was the capstone to becoming a model of an effective and influential community educational center. Manchester Bidwell Corporation provides executive management and administrative support for each subsidiary in the areas of finance, human resources, development, marketing, public relations, facilities, and information technology. One of the impacts of the implementation of a parent organization was the formalization of the continued partnership and concurrent planning between the two non-profit subsidiaries Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild and Bidwell Training Center. In addition, long standing organizational philosophy and culture was reaffirmed.
The contributions of Bill Strickland and Manchester Bidwell to the arts and the community have been well documented and honored with numerous prestigious awards. Strickland has served a six-year Presidential appointment as a Council Member of the National Endowment for the Arts and received the MacArthur Genius Award for leadership and ingenuity in the arts. In addition, Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild has received the Coming Up Taller Award and Bidwell Training Center has received the EPIC Award from the U.S. Department of Labor.
Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
To learn more about MBC and its subsidiaries, view a PDF of our 2006-07 Annual Report. To receive a printed copy of the report, please e-mail us. Please include your name, title, company name and mailing address in the body of the e-mail.
