Bill Strickland is the founder and CEO of the Manchester Craftsmen's Guild

Manchester Craftsmen's Guild

Manchester Craftsmen's Guild is a nonprofit multi-discipline art, education and music organization established in 1968 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, with the address of 1815 Metropolitan St. 15233...

, an innovative nonprofit agency in Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...

, Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

 that uses the arts to inspire inner-city teenagers.

Strickland, a winner of a MacArthur Fellowship "genius" award, started the Manchester Craftsmen's Guild in 1968, while still an undergraduate at the University of Pittsburgh

University of Pittsburgh

The University of Pittsburgh, commonly referred to as Pitt, is a state-related research university located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded as Pittsburgh Academy in 1787 on what was then the American frontier, Pitt is one of the oldest continuously chartered institutions of...

. He added the Bidwell Training Center in 1972. Both reach out to disadvantaged young people with (respectively) the arts and job training.

The Guild is also home to a concert hall/recording studio, and won a Grammy on its first CD.

Strickland has also been honored by the White House

White House

The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...

 and has served on the board of the National Endowment for the Arts

National Endowment for the Arts

The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...

.

External links

• Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild website
• TEDTalk: "Rebuilding America, one slide show at a time" (Feb 2002)
• / WSJ: "Social Innovation as an Art Form" (Sep 2009)
• Fast Company: "Genius at Work" (Dec. 2007)
• Edutopia: "Passing Empowerment Down Through the Arts" (Feb. 2009)
• Caroline Abels (2002). Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Profile of Bill Strickland. Retrieved May 26, 2006.