Baltimore and Pittsburgh were both forged in the American Industrial Revolution, producing steel, textiles, and coal. Today both cities are finding their way towards post-industrial futures; health care and education play outsized economic roles in each. Both gritty cities are characterized by a strong neighborhood feeling. Both are mixes of nineteenth-century industrial architecture, dotted with mansions once owned by industrial leaders, such as Hackerman House (Baltimore) and the Frick House (Pittsburgh). Baltimore has its iconic Bromo-Seltzer Tower while Pittsburgh enjoys the Heinz Factory, both elaborate structures from the cities’ manufacturing pasts, now re-purposed. Cities of Steel Cities of Rust is an exhibition conceived and organized by Mary Fissell and Courtney Powell. The exhibition paired artists from the Baltimore Jewelry Center's Peer Group and the Allegheny Metals Collective. Each artist chose a local site with personal or iconic significance and started a piece referencing it; they then swapped and completed work made by an artist in the other city. Exchanging partially-realized pieces helped break through assumptions as they considered how to develop and execute other artists’ initial conceptions. Each pair of artists engaged in literal as well as artistic conversation to foster connections between the two cities’ lively metalsmithing communities.
Participating artist pairs are Katie Rearick/Elliot Keeley, Stacy Rogers/Lydia Martin, Jim Bove/Mary Raivel, Maria Camera-Smith/Laura Penza, Allison Hilton Jones/Mary Fissell, Courtney Powell/Donna Seegar-Sedmak, Courtney Powell/Marian Breitenbach, and Kattie Jones/Jessica McGrath.
