For the first time in a decade, the School of Media and Visual Arts is offering a metal casting class to its students, providing an exciting new skill for artists and sculptors at the University of Montana.

Metal casting is a manufacturing process dating back to ancient civilizations and has evolved commercially to produce objects for industrial purposes. However, the practice has also changed into an artistic technique for sculpting.

Jesse Blumenthal, an adjunct professor at UM and a recognized blacksmith, is teaching the first foundry class for the art school in 10 years. A foundry is the official name for a factory that produces metal castings. Castings are made by melting and pouring metal into molds, creating 3D objects of all shapes and sizes. 

According to Valerie Hedquist, the director of the School of Media and Visual Arts, this program left the school because it’s an expensive area of sculpture. She said it also required a lot of attention due to the many safety procedures for the molten metal and the possibility of getting hurt. In addition, Blumenthal said the prior foundry used on campus took its fair share of use and abuse and was in a state of disrepair. 

“Years of penny-pinching and pooling art budgets was necessary, as was the support of the administration. [Hedquist] was instrumental in finding and approving the funding for the facility rebuild,” Blumenthal said.

He said this class allows students to experience different aspects of foundry work. On a commercial and industrial level, tens of thousands of pounds of metal are being cast at a time, so this class intends to shrink those operations to an artist’s scale to see how they can participate in this trade.

Shea Sidner, a third-year fine arts student from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, said she has been persistently asking the art school about more ways to work with metal in studio classes. 

“I feel impacted in the fact that my voice was heard in pestering to get this program back,” Sidner said.

Sidner has considered herself an artist for the majority of her life. She designs and sells stickers, lighters and clothing, often branded by her signature symbol: a wonky star with six points. She began working with metal two years ago when she transferred to UM from Bozeman’s Montana State University.

“I’m super, super psyched for this class. I feel like it’s opening up a whole new world of metal for me from my past two semesters of welding,” Sidner said.

On the very first day of class, students eagerly scribbled down notes as their experienced professor covered the essentials: different metals and their melting points, the reactivity of these metals, and most importantly, personal protective equipment. This includes a respirator, safety glasses, closed-toed shoes without laces, chaps over their pants and clothing made of natural fibers.

Then the students gathered around a small furnace for indoor casting as Blumenthal demonstrated the process. The studio went quiet. All eyes were on the professor’s steady hands as he poured the first bit of molten metal into the mold. In a few moments, out came a flawed, tiny bicycle made of pewter, a common metal used for small-scale castings. Necks stretched to catch a glimpse of the first creation, and all the artists in the room began expressing their excitement.

“I can’t wait to do bigger stuff,” said Taylor Schilke, a sophomore in the fine arts program.

Schilke, a 21-year-old from Bozeman, is focusing on sculpture and is best known for soulfully identifying with the color orange and the citrus fruit itself. She said she is looking forward to using this new technique in her personal art journey. Her favorite way to sculpt is by combining ceramic and metal, so she also said she is thrilled to incorporate casting.

“This really changes my art experience because this process is so unique to anything else we have done here, otherwise I wouldn’t have even thought about this option or had access to it,” Schilke said.

The “starving artist” can find solace in this skill, as it provides an entrance into a valuable trade. Sidner said she wanted to learn how to use the tools offered in the sculpture program because she can see this financially supporting herself as an artist. 

“This isn’t something that a lot of people have a depth of knowledge of, it’s not something I learned personally in academia, so I’m excited to bring it back for the students,” Blumenthal said.