RAMPING UP MONMADE
A push to tap artisan entrepreneurship for economic fuel to boost region’s smaller communities
In the basement of the Braddock Carnegie Library — where steelworkers once showered after finishing shifts in Andrew Carnegie’s nearby mill — artisans design colorful ceramic tiles that are then fired in a gas reduction kiln reaching a temperature of 2,300 degrees Fahrenheit.
The former bathhouse studio in the historic library serves as home to Braddock Tiles, a nonprofit aiming to market its ceramics to architects, designers and developers looking to feature locally sourced crafts in their projects.
And Braddock Tiles achieved that through at least one deal to create custom kitchen back splashes in five homes developed by the Lawrenceville Community Land Trust.
Besides generating $3,500 in revenue for Braddock Tiles — which also sponsors youth training programs — the job brought it exposure to architects and other land trusts that may bring future projects to the nonprofit, said Katie Johnson, the studio’s manager.
Braddock Tiles made the connection to the Lawrenceville land trust through Monmade, a twoyear-old network working to match craft and artisan enterprises with commercial opportunities.
“A lot of people saw our tiles and now they know who we are,” Ms. Johnson said. “Through Monmade, we’ve met a lot of other people in Pittsburgh with creative businesses.”
Launched officially in 2017 as an initiative of nonprofit community development investment firm Bridgeway Capital, the Monmade program counts 70 craft producers in its network. Its organizers estimate that it has helped its artisans generate $1.2 million in sales.
The Lawrenceville land trust relationship illustrates how such connections can work to bring opportunities to more than one business.
Vessel Studio Glass, on the South Side, created pendant lights for the trust’s homes with an Andy Warhol-inspired soup can design; Bones and All, a furniture maker in Homewood, produced mailboxes from salvaged tree limbs in the East End; and Modesto Studios, a graphic design firm that recently relocated from Wilkinsburg to East Millsboro in Fayette County, made concrete panels for the homes’ exteriors.
With its track record established in Pittsburgh, Monmade is working to generate revenue-producing projects for artisans beyond the city and immediate suburbs.
Far beyond Pittsburgh
Using a $225,000 grant from the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation, Bridgeway’s Craft Business Accelerator is eyeing towns deep in to the Mon River Valley, south to Morgantown, W.Va., and east to Johnstown, Cambria County.
It’s terrain filled with former industrial centers and mill towns that could tap into using emerging artisan businesses as an economic generator, said James Denova, the foundation’s vice president.
The Benedum foundation, which focuses its grantmaking largely in West Virginia and funds many projects in rural communities outside of Pittsburgh, expects Monmade’s expansion to benefit “some of these isolated artisans in the Mon Valley … who maybe are emerging businesses or artists who want to start a business for the first time,” said Mr. Denova.
With enough momentum, “Arts and artisanry provide a venue for small business development,” he said.
This project has brought together a number of collaborators. Mr. Denova credited the Hillman and Richard King Mellon
foundations, which funded Monmade’s startup efforts in Pittsburgh, as being “risk investors” in the concept of matching creative makers with business opportunities.
It makes sense in a region with deep heritage in glassmaking and industrial arts like metalworking. “We should look more to the creative industries as economic drivers,” he said.
The Benedum foundation’s money will be awarded over two years. That should allow the Craft Business Accelerator to provide financing, small grants and technical assistance for artisans and entrepreneurs linking into the Monmade network.
Two other philanthropies are also boosting Monmade’s expansion.
The S. Kent Rockwell Foundation provided $30,000 for selected members to participate in a fivemonth pilot curriculum to develop business skills that the artisans can use to market their products at a national trade show.
The Benter Foundation in February awarded $10,000 to help Monmade members get access to real estate projects. Benter previously granted $15,000 for an economic impact study of the network.
Meanwhile, the Benedum foundation grant allowed the accelerator to retain Ms. Johnson as a consultant.
Grants for artisans
Ms. Johnson is spending some of her time identifying artisans who are good prospects — such as a wood processor based near Uniontown, Fayette County.
Because the craftsman hasn’t signed on yet, she declined to name him but said ideally, he could provide locally sourced flooring or accent wall planking to commercial or residential developers.
Through the Monmade network, artisans are eligible for grants of about $1,000 to $2,500 that can be used for website development, equipment or other tools that will help grow and market their craft businesses.
Ms. Johnson and the accelerator provide hands-on technical assistance.
Two high-profile arts centers in Fayette County — Fallingwater and Touchstone Center for Crafts — have also agreed to provide exposure to the Monmade network.
At Fallingwater — the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home in Mill Run — 10 Monmade producers will participate in a design residency in April.
During the weekend program, Monmade artisans will have access to the main house, nature areas and other properties on the site for inspiration, said Ms. Johnson.
Products with designs based on their site experiences will be sold in Fallingwater’s store later in the year and exhibited at the Brew House Association’s gallery on the South Side during the holiday shopping season.
At Touchstone, a craft school located on a 150-acre campus in Farmington, Monmade will convene a three-day symposium in May. At that event, successful entrepreneurs will discuss their careers and offer advice on production and tapping global markets.
Touchstone — which offers courses in blacksmithing, ceramics, metal working, jewelry, glass and other art forms — eventually wants to show work from regional Monmade producers in its galleries, said Lindsay Ketterer Gates, executive director.
Backing small businesses
For emerging artisans, “It’s a challenge to think about business,” she said.
While creative makers traditionally didn’t get much instruction on structuring their craft as an enterprise, Ms. Ketterer Gates said, more “makers coming up through colleges and universities now are really being taught that you are running your own business and you are a business owner.
“So it’s a natural partnership for us with Monmade because we’re both interested in furthering education and business practices for artists.”
In Johnstown, Monmade is collaborating with the Center for Metal Arts, a blacksmithing school in a former Bethlehem Steel plant with enrollment of more than 200 students.
As a former industrial center, Johnstown has the same synergy as towns along the Mon Valley. “So we want to identify small, creative businesses there and offer them the resources they need,” said Ms. Johnson.
As members of the network, artisans near Pittsburgh may even find larger, affordable spaces to work in places like Cambria County, said Mike Kane, president and executive director of the Community Foundation for the Alleghenies in Johnstown.
“Monmade is a great commitment by Bridgeway Capital to the reinvention of our industrial heritage where we really made things,” he said.
A new name
Closer to Pittsburgh, Monmade is making connections with artisans through the Mon Valley Creative Corridor, an initiative launched last year by Rivers of Steel Heritage Corp.
The creative corridor promotes arts and culture in former industrial centers in Allegheny, Westmoreland, Washington, Fayette, and Greene counties, said Chris McGinnis, director and chief curator of Rivers of Steel Arts.
The idea is to leverage the industrial heritage of such places by sponsoring pop-up events like aluminum-casting or blacksmithing demonstrations in places like Charleroi and Monessen.
“Public programming can bring people out, get them excited about their downtowns, and bring arts and heritage tourists,” said Mr. McGinnis.
While Braddock Tiles already resides in a steel town, the nonprofit envisions someday relocating to a larger space in one of those former Mon Valley industrial centers.
As part of that plan, it’s changing its name to Monongahela Tile Works.
“I love Braddock,” said Ms. Johnson, “but we want to reaffirm our commitment to all of southwestern Pennsylvania. And the name will allow us to shift spaces as we grow.”