“The value of public art is the space to ask questions and to imagine answers,” Tim Kaulen, founder and executive director of Industrial Arts Workshop, tells host and Endowments President Chris DeCardy in this episode of “We Can Be.”

A successful working artist and educator, Tim is also a thoughtful community advocate committed to public art, creative spaces and workforce development. Under his leadership, Industrial Arts Workshop began a decade ago as a mobile sculpture program that brought together high school students to learn safe welding and metal fabrication techniques, as well as artistic process, community engagement and team building.

Now with a permanent home in Pittsburgh’s Hazelwood community, a neighborhood with a deep history in the region’s steel industry, Industrial Arts Workshop has served more than 600 students, with many going on to careers in both the arts and the welding industry.

The large-scale welded steel sculptures Tim and his students and have created in prominent locations across Pittsburgh are bringing the region’s industrial past into the future in a bold, beautiful and meaningful way.

Early in his career, Tim’s creation of a 25-foot inflatable figure made from recycled billboard segments was featured at the Burning Man Festival and exhibited in Brooklyn and Pittsburgh. His “dino-geese” painting on the 10th Street bridge on Pittsburgh’s South Side has gained mythological status, inspiring joy – and the occasional tattoo – among fans over the years.

“What's great for me is to see young people engage with public art and to see their curiosity and their imaginations change in the moment,” Tim says. “That is what public art is about: curiosity, questions, imagination and wonder.”

“We Can Be” is hosted by Heinz Endowments President Chris DeCardy, and produced by the Endowments, Josh Franzos and Tim Murray. Special commentary in this episode by Endowments Senior Program Officer for Arts & Culture Mac Howison. Theme music by Josh Slifkin. Host and guest photos: Josh Franzos. Guest inquiries: Scott Roller at [email protected]. New episode every two weeks.