Events

Since 1999, The Crucible has brought our community of artists, neighbors, families, students, and makers together for events ranging from artists’ talks and demos to fire performances, benefits, and community open houses. For updates about all upcoming events, subscribe to our newsletter.

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Important Dates

  • December 23, 2023 – January 1, 2024: Crucible closed for winter break
  • January 8 – January 12: Weeklong Adult Classes
  • January 15: The Crucible’s 25th Birthday!
  • February 29: Field Trip Day
  • March 2: West Oakland Bike Summit
  • March 7: Field Trip Day
  • April 18: Field Trip Day
  • May 9: Field Trip Day
  • June 10 – July 26: Youth Summer Camps
  • July 25: Fuego Youth Leadership Reception
  • July 29: GIFTY vendor applications open
  • August 12 – 23: Weeklong Adult Classes
  • September 7: Fall Open House
  • December 7 & 8: GIFTY 2024

Upcoming Events

Bike Shop: Free Events and Education

See our Bike Shop event page for upcoming event dates.

The Crucible is offering free, community bike maintenance and education to West Oakland and neighboring community members through our quarterly Bike Fix-A-Thons, Open Bike Shop Hours, Femme Bike Night, and Flat Fix Clinics. Drop off your bike for a tune-up or learn basic bike maintenance skills from our faculty and volunteers. We are also leading offsite events at other West Oakland locations.

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Free Crucible Tours

Join us for a free, semi-monthly Crucible tour! Learn about the history of our 56,000-square-foot studio, the art and artists that make our space unique, and our nonprofit mission to keep the industrial and fine arts accessible to all.

To accommodate different schedules, tours alternate between Saturday afternoons at 2pm and Thursday evenings at 6pm.

Space is limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis in person. Feel free to RSVP on Eventbrite: Free Crucible Tours! RSVPs made through Eventbrite are for reminder purposes only and do not act as a reservation. Tours are subject to cancellation.

Please note: a portion of the tour requires the use of stairs.

2024 Tour Schedule

Fall dates will be added soon!

  • Thursday, January 25: 6pm
  • Saturday, February 10: 2pm
  • Thursday, February 22: 6pm
  • Saturday, March 9: 2pm
  • Thursday, March 28: 6pm
  • Saturday, April 20: 2pm
  • Thursday, April 25: 6pm
  • Saturday, May 4: 2pm
  • Thursday, May 23: 6pm
  • Saturday, June 8: 2pm
  • Thursday, June 27: 6pm
  • Saturday, July 13: 2pm
  • Thursday, July 25: 6pm

Can’t wait to see inside?

Check out our virtual 3D Tour by clicking the button below! 

3D Tour

GIFTY: The Crucible’s annual craft show and open house

Find out when vendor applications will open and get answers to frequently asked questions.

Learn more about GIFTY

Browse Past In-person Events

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East Bay Mini Maker Faire 2012

The very core of The Crucible is about learning and doing: inspiring creativity in everyone, and unleashing their potential to make things. It’s no surprise then that you’ll find us at the 2012 East Bay Mini Maker Faire. If you like building / tinkering / fixing / prototyping / making things, block off October 14th on your calendar immediately… A Maker Faire is about celebrating learning and doing, not the finished and perfect end product. It’s a place to share what we’re learning with others, and celebrate the fun and freedom of being an amateur. Featuring both established and emerging local “makers,” the East Bay Mini Maker Faire is a family-friendly celebration coming to Oakland for its second year on Sunday, October 14, 2012. It will feature rockets and robots, DIY science and technology, urban farming and sustainability, alternative energy, bicycles, unique hand-made crafts, music and local food, and educational workshops and installations. Maker Faire started back in 2006 as a spin-off of MAKE magazine. The original Maker Faire entertains over 100,000 visitors in San Mateo over a weekend at the end of every May, and additional Maker Faires have now happened appeared in Austin, Detroit and New York City; Mini Maker Faires have started to sprout up around the United States and the world, including events in Ann Arbor, Seattle, Tampa Bay, Kansas City, Shenzhen, Dublin, Brighton. The East Bay Mini Maker Faire follows the “big” Maker Faire model of celebrating do-it-yourself creativity and tinkering, but is smaller in scale (150 makers vs. 800 makers; 5,000 people on one day vs. 50,000) and will showcase the wonders of Alameda and Contra Costa counties. The East Bay Mini Maker Faire is fortunate to have Park Day School as its host and sponsor. Park Day School has just expanded its campus to 4 beautiful acres snuggled behind Oakland Technical High School in the Temescal district, and is opening its doors of this secret wonder to the greater East Bay for the Mini Maker Faire. The Faire also utilizes the wonderful and adjacent facilities of Studio One Art Center, Oakland’s only city-run building and program dedicated to studio arts instruction in a wide range of media for persons of all ages. The Crucible will be on hand with demonstrations and information, complete with red hot metal and roaring fire effects. Additional Resources EMBBF official website Follow EBMMF on Twitter @ebmakerfaire EBMMF Facebook fan page

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2012 Fall Fireside Lounge: “Shape / Shift”

October 12, 2012 * 6:30-9:30pm Interested in participating? Click here to download the Art Submission Form. The Crucible’s Fireside Lounge is an intimate evening of art, industry, community and entertainment. This exclusive engagement takes place in The Crucible’s studio and highlights our extraordinary art programs. Explore the creative passions of professional artists and the educational opportunities available while sipping cocktails in our unique atmosphere. A gallery of remarkable artwork by students and faculty will be on display and live performances are scheduled throughout the night. Admission is $10 at the door and is free for members of The Crucible. As does life, art shapes and shifts. Join us for an evening of makers, innovators, dreamers, and creators, as we celebrate “Shape/Shift.” This evening hosts some of the Bay Area’s most influential makers and artists. Join us as we explore the lines and texture of raw materials and the dynamic processes that shift their natural shape into refined representations of artists’ imaginations. Join us for a riveting lecture on how the shape of art has shifted through time. We will host an industrial art show, fire performances, discounts on Crucible classes and live industrial arts demonstrations. Event Highlights Live industrial art demonstrations in eight featured areas Spectacular art gallery showcasing work from featured areas Fiery stage performances from The Crucible Fire Performance department faculty & students,  and RockaBelly Dance Company Panel discussion hosted by Randolph Belle with Crucible faculty Barry Baldwin, Stone Carving Artist and Mary White, Glass Artist Hosted Fire Spin Jam Tasty food from Fist of Flour Pizza, wine from Periscope Cellars & beer from Linden Street Brewery Exciting discounts on Crucible classes if you register during the event And chances to win free tuition for Crucible class!   Featuring Demonstrations In Ceramics Fire Performance Glass Blowing Glass Flameworking Moldmaking Neon & Light Stone Working Textiles & Soft Sculpture Wood Event Location & Directions The event will be located at: The Crucible 1260 7th Street Oakland, CA 94607 Directions… Parking The Crucible has a very small parking lot on the corner of 7th & Union that will be available for disabled placard parking only. Those spaces are available on a first-come, first-serve basis and go quickly. There are also two paid parking lots that will be staffed. One is on Kirkham Avenue and the other is the 5th Street lot by BART. Please do not park in lots owned by local businesses or the residential area behind The Crucible; your car may be towed. Public Transit Ditch the car and don’t worry about parking – The Crucible is easily accessible by BART! From the West Oakland BART Station, exit onto 7th Street, turn right and walk 2 blocks east to Union (at the 2nd light). The Crucible is on the northwest corner of 7th & Union, at 1260 7th Street. To plan your BART trip, visit www.bart.gov.    

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Peralta Junction

A Pop-Up Creative Commons in West Oakland featuring Art, Food Trucks, Performances, People & Pumpkins. Beginning October 4, 2012, the 24,000 square-foot vacant lot full of weeds at the corner of Mandela Parkway and West Grand will be transformed into a creative community space filled with art and commerce. For three months this fall, The Peralta Junction Project will change the nature of weekends in West Oakland, utilizing the strong local opportunities for our often-challenged neighborhood. The project team will clean up and activate the space through art installations, creative workshops, local performing arts programming, micro retail shops featuring local artisans, Oakland-based food trucks, and a tented creative commons. As we’re an integral part of the West Oakland Industrial Arts Cooridor, The Crucible will be hosting workshops for West Oakland youth on several of the Thursdays and Fridays while the space is open. These workshops will feature copper metalworking as well as learning how to work with light emitting diodes (LEDs). We’ll be tayloring our programming in conjunction with the many other organizations running workshops. In addition to the workshops, we’ll also be taking over one of the 25 canvas tents to create The Crucible Artist Pop-Up Store, open every Saturday and Sunday 10-6pm. At the Pop-Up Store you’ll be able to browse through works by artists at The Crucible, all of which will be for sale! Grand opening is this weekend, October 6th & 7th, with a host of installations and performances to kick off the project. To learn more visit www.PeraltaJunction.com.

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Artists of The Crucible at Peralta Junction

Peralta Junction’s Pop-Up Creative Commons has become a hive of weekend activity in West Oakland. Movies, music, dancing… Each weekend as the doors open up inquisitive visitors are treated to art, food trucks, performances and a special booth of artists from The Crucible showing (and selling!) their wares. A few of the artists showing off their craft include: Lauren Ekman with handmade glass beads and jewelry (etsy.com/shop/redredmelt) Cliff Bohm, blacksmithing and beautiful knives Sam Waller and his leather work Ben Cowden with kinetic sculpture (twentysevengears.com) Rob Nehring with metal sculpture (rustynoodlestudios.com) The weather for the past few weekends has been warm with blue skies, making for a steady stream of interested, creative folks coming through the pavilion. Sound like fun? To learn more about Peralta Junction, visit www.PeraltaJunction.com.

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Lie-Nielsen Hand Tool Trunk Show

Friday, September 21, 2012 • 10AM-6PM Saturday, September 22, 2012 • 10AM-5PM Free Admission The Crucible is hosting a Lie-Nielsen Hand Tool Event. Featured events include: Test their full line of woodworking hand tools. Participate in hands-on demonstrations. Learn tips & tricks from the Lie-Nielsen staff. Meet the guest demonstrators. Enter the door prize drawing! Come see how great handtools make woodworking easier! For more information on Lie-Nielsen, you can visit their website at www.lie-nielsen.com.

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Beads of Courage Bead Challenge

  Saturday, Setepmber 15, 2012 • 10AM-6PM Free Admission A fundraiser for Beads of Courage, Inc, hosted by The Northern California Society of Glass Beadmakers The Northern California Society of Glass Beadmakers are Firing up their Torches! Beads of Courage has challenged the talented bead artists of The Northern California Society of Glass Beadmakers to fire up their flaming hot torches and melt colorful glass into meaningful symbols of COURAGE! These one-of-a-kind glass beads will be given to children coping with serious illness to help them RECORD, TELL and OWN their story of COURAGE. We hope to see you there! Talented Artists – Flaming Torches – An Amazing Cause FREE to Attend – BEad Amazed! You can make a difference by participating in the following activities: Make a beaded bracele t($5) Make a COURAGE clip ($5) Sponsor a bead for a child in treatment ($5) Win Door Prizes! Purchase unique items at the Beads of Courage Store Learn more about Beads of Courage online: www.BeadsofCourage.org Beads of Courage, Inc. is proud to partner with Children’s Hospital & Research Center Oakland, Kaiser Permanente Oakland, Kaiser Permanente Sacramento-Roseville, UC Davis Medical Center, Sutter Medical Center and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford to provide the Beads of Courage Program. Thank you for your support and for helping make healing happen!  

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Hot Couture: Call for Artists

The Crucible seeks submissions and team proposals from fashion designers and industrial artists for our January 2013 fashion show event. General Information Something amazing is in the works at The Crucible. For the second time in our history, we’re launching an event bringing the creativity, skill and glamour of high fashion together with the strength, power and volatility of the industrial arts. Introducing HOT COUTURE: A Fusion of Fashion and Fire. As our 14th year anniversary event, Hot Couture seeks teams of designers to collaborate and design industrial haute couture. Our event concept is to blend the intensity and craft surrounding true French haute couture with the raw energy and materials found in the industrial arts. We’re calling for fashion designers to pair with industrial artists to use talents from both fields to create bold design, visionary fashion, and accessories that can only exist in this rare coupling of worlds. Leather, metal, paper, stone, silk, fire, electricity… All materials and methods of beautifully integrating them with the human form are up for grabs. The supporting event will be produced in proper Crucible style, with a focus on industrial elements set to a backdrop of metal and fire. Once the show run has completed, all pieces will be included in a moving art installation as part of a set of exhibits in museums throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. To start the process, The Crucible is hosting an informal mixer for interested fashion designers, fine and industrial artists, and visionaries on September 11th at 7pm. This informational session will allow interested artists to talk to the organizers and meet potential collaborators. We’ll have wine and snacks, as well as highlight themes and concepts for the show. Requirements Design teams much produce a minimum of four complete looks for the show. Looks must be imaginative and well executed. Wearable is a guideline; we are looking for fashion sculpture. All designs should be flame resistant. Event Details The dates for the show will be Friday and Saturday nights, January 11th and 12th, 2013. The Crucible will provide a materials stipend for each team selected. The Crucible will own the works after the show. All artists and designers will be credited for their work. HOT COUTURE: A Fusion of Fashion and Fire fashion is a spectacle that you won’t want to miss. We’re looking forward to supporting you and your team, and we’d like to get started as soon as possible. Coming to the September 11 7pm mixer? Please RSVP to Andrea@TheCrucible.org to let us know how many people to expect. For information on haute couture and it’s place in France’s fashion DNA, Vanity Fair has this: http://www.vanityfair.com/style/features/2009/09/couture200909  

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2012 Fall Open House

Saturday, Setepmber 8, 2012 • 12-4PM Free Admission A fun day for the whole family! Our open houses are a wonderful way to experience the excitement of The Crucible’s 56,000 sq. ft. studio, where furnaces roar and sparks fly. Check out exciting live demonstrations in all of our studios and classrooms at The Crucible. Catch amazing fiery performances and wander through our student and faculty art show displaying the creativity of The Crucible artist community. Event Highlights: Demonstrations The Crucible is truly unique with all the industrial art disciplines we have under one roof. During this exciting Open House we will perform demonstrations and exhibits in every area. Instructors, students, guest artists, and volunteers will be on hand to answer any questions you may have. Check out a map of our studio! Art Show Every Fall we like to show off what we do here with a spectacular art show. We will have pieces from Crucible staff, students, faculty and volunteers showcasing all of the fabulous industrial arts classes we teach here. During the open house we will ask visitors to vote on their favorite top three pieces. Free tuition on a Crucible class will be awarded to the winning artists. Want to display your art? Click here. Open Studios The Crucible is home to over a dozen private artist studios. Several of these artists will have their studios open during our Open House. Meet the artists, see their work, and find out how they are active at the Crucible year round. Discounts on Crucible Classes New students who sign up for a Fall class during the Open House, will receive 20% off class tuition. All members who sign up, will receive 25% off. Not a member and want to take advantage of the 25% off deal? Become a member at our open house and get 25% off any classes you register for at the open house. Bicycles for Sale Looking for a great deal on a bike? The Crucible Bike Shop has a selection of quality used bicycles that have been fully rebuilt by our youth and volunteer mechanics. Stop by the bike shop at this year’s open house for a test ride, or contact jcavagnolo@thecrucible.org with questions or to make an appointment. In addition to getting a sweet, reliable ride, your purchase supports our Youth Earn-A-Bike Program, our Youth Mechanic Program, and our Community Bike Fixathons. Learn more. Win FREE tuition for a Crucible class During our Open House you can win free tuition for a Crucible class. Enter our drawing when you first arrive for a chance at the free class. Event Location & Directions The Crucible 1260 7th Street. Oakland, CA 94607 DirectionsParking The Crucible has a very small parking lot on the corner of 7th & Union that will be available for disabled placard parking only. Those spaces are available on a first-come, first-serve basis and go quickly. There are also two paid parking lots that will be staffed. One is on Kirkham Avenue and the […]

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2012 Fall Open House: Call For Art

Call for Art Let The Crucible put your art on display! We are opening our doors to the public on Saturday, September 8th, 2012 from 12-4PM for our annual Fall Open House. Showcasing art in a gallery setting that utilizes the techniques taught at The Crucible is central to our Open Houses to demonstrate the breadth of our methods and depth of our talent. Every department is eligible to participate though there isn’t a specific theme for this event. The submission process is open to faculty, staff, volunteers, students (including those in the youth program), studio renters & others related to The Crucible. This is a great opportunity to exhibit your work to the 500+ people who attend the Open Houses. Encourage your students and others to participate. The submission form is available as a downloadable PDF. Important dates: Submission Deadline Monday, September 3rd 5PM Notification of Acceptance Tuesday, September 4th 5PM Art Drop-off Thursday, September 6th 4-8 PM Art Drop-off Friday, September 7th 2-6PM Open House Saturday, September 8th 12-4PM Art Pick-up Saturday, September 8th 4-5PM Art Pick-up Monday, September 10th 10AM-4PM Contact daniel@thecrucible.org if you require any alternative time. Thank you. We look forward to exhibiting your artwork at The Crucible’s Fall Open House. As a side note, we will be having exhibition themes for the 2013 Fireside Lounges with a broadened call for art similar to how many galleries operate. The Open Houses will remain Crucible specific calls for art. Contact daniel@thecrucible.org if you require an alternative drop off or pick up time.

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Watch Past Virtual Events