August 19, 2025 — In a sunlit studio in Pittsburgh’s Hill District, surrounded by stacks of century-old wooden foundry patterns and oil paintings drenched in rust-colored nostalgia, artist Cory Bonnet is quietly revolutionizing the way young people see their future. His initiative, Patterns of Meaning, is more than an art project—it’s a movement designed to reconnect communities with the history, creativity, and possibility embedded in manufacturing. And at the heart, is a plan to inspire future makers through workshops that carry an urgent and compelling promise.
Cory is spearheading a new outreach collaboration with the Metallurgical Engineering Trades Apprenticeship & Learning (METAL) program to inspire students to pursue careers in the casting and forging industries. The partnership with METAL will be piloted in public schools in Pennsylvania’s Allegheny County and surrounding counties. By connecting the industrial history of their community with the imagination of hands-on art projects, Cory is aiming to ignite that spark in more than 1,000 kids within the first year.
“I want them to look at manufacturing not as factory work but as a creative endeavor,” he explains. “It’s problem-solving. It’s invention. It’s creation.”
Trash to Treasure
Cory’s studio is a time machine built from weathered wood, technical blueprints, and bold new ways to showcase them. The patterns—hand-carved forms once used to cast the components of steel mills—serve as both historical artifacts and creative springboards. “These things were all built by hand,” Cory says. “Before CAD, before CNC machines. Built with skill, sweat, and imagination.” Each salvaged artifact—some dating back to the 1890s—tells a story.
His journey into combining art and industry began with collecting a few scrap metal pieces from a salvage dealer named Chip Barletto. Chip was used to hauling big stuff—like 80-ton pieces of iron—and shared how these hunks of metal reveal the rich history of the region where they both grew up. Wanting to preserve these relics of the Steel Belt, Cory bought one of the most complete collections of industrial casting patterns and blueprints from this era in the world. He’s now working with a consortium of artists who use the collection in unique mediums: oil, glass, ceramics, and sculpture. They take what previously was forgotten in a warehouse and revitalize it.
Ingenuity Through Art
It’s this spirit of ingenuity that Cory wants students to encounter. Led by IACMI—The Composites Institute®, METAL is supporting a variety of K-12 workshops across the country. This workshop will immerse students in a curriculum that merges fine arts with technical learning. Younger students might paint, draw, or create collages inspired by the patterns and their stories. Older ones may get hands-on with wax models, CAD tools, sand casting, and 3D printing. “It’s a way to Trojan horse creativity into technical education,” Cory says with a grin. “Art with technology is how young people will create the next unbelievable things.”
“Right now, there’s a disconnect,” he continues. “Young people don’t see metalworking or manufacturing as exciting, meaningful careers. But they are. These are industries that built the modern world. And they were built by people whose greatest assets were human spirit and ingenuity.”
Through classroom presentations, field trips, and hands-on instruction that focus on creative opportunities through fine art, the initiative aims to reach students not traditionally tracked for careers in engineering and science. The goal is to inspire all students to think about careers in advanced manufacturing while they’re young.
Why Here, Why Now?
Through a pilot, Cory has already seen how this program rekindles a sense of wonder and gratitude—not only for the objects themselves, but for the people and processes that made them. Their parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents. The workshops aim to bridge the gap between past and future, between abstract creativity and tangible creation. Cory sees today’s students as uniquely positioned to imagine new possibilities. “They’re starting at a level the steelworkers of 100 years ago couldn’t even dream of,” he says. “They have the tools. Now we just have to help them realize the power of their own ideas.”
Ultimately, Cory hopes that students leave the Patterns of Meaning workshops with new skills and a new sense of identity—one rooted in both art and industry. “I worked solo for 20 years,” he reflects. “But the real magic happens in collaboration. When no one claims to know everything, and everyone listens and builds together—your work will be magnitudes greater than anything you could accomplish on your own.”
The compelling message he wants students and their parents to hear is that their country needs them to explore careers in manufacturing again, and when they do, it can be a win-win. They can look forward to good, well-paying jobs that won’t be the same as the ones even a generation ago. The need is urgent, and the time to embrace those opportunities is now.
