While metalworking is a long-standing essential craft worldwide, few people recognize its art and its valuable place in history and society. Luckily, there’s an organization located in Memphis, Tennessee, whose mission is to preserve, promote, and advance the art and craft of fine metalwork.

The Metal Museum is the only institution of its kind in North America, and one of only a handful in the world. The leadership team at the Metal Museum has created an amazing culture and working environment for the staff, students, interns, and the public — on a beautiful campus overlooking the Mississippi River. They achieve their mission through rotating exhibits, permanent collections, a blacksmith shop, foundry, small metals lab, and the help of a vibrant community of learners of all ages. 

Their community involvement is incredibly impactful through their teaching of the next generation of artists through their Metals Studio. Here’s just a small sampling of what students can learn there: 
      1. How to cast several types of metal: iron, aluminum, bronze, and more. 
      2. How to forge metal so that the magic happens when the hammer hits the heat. 
      3. How to craft fine and exotic metals into jewelry, interior and exterior décor, and sculpture. 
      4. How to turn an idea into metal art. 

Repair Days 2025 

Repair Days is the Metal Museum’s largest annual event and fundraiser. This year, it took place from October 17–20, 2025. The Repair Days Weekend Event, on the surface, gives people a place to get things fixed, but its real purpose is to build connections with the community by repairing keepsakes and other collectible items. 

The list of possible metal pieces is endless: from decor to furniture and even to historical memorabilia and Oscar statuettes. All money raised goes right back into helping the museum’s annual programming and exhibitions. 

Many of the items brought in for repair would not have enough monetary value to justify the repair. But they are items that people love and are often connected to someone or something in their past. So, it is really more of a feeling and a memory that is being repaired.   

The professional metalsmiths who volunteer do so for the networking opportunities within the community and the rejuvenation they get from each other. Artists are different, and at Repair Days 2025, they got to be different together. 

Around 200 people pitched in to make Repair Days a reality, helping with everything from food tents to activities for families and children. 

Our own Dave White attended the weekend-long event and spent two whole days interacting with a passionate group of people from all walks of life: from a blacksmith teaching college students about working with brass to an executive running tools and messages back and forth between artisans — and everywhere, students bursting with questions and eager to return next year. 

In Dave’s words, “it felt like a family reunion, but with people you’ve never met...it was a comfortable, sharing experience.” He notes the excitement in attendees’ eyes when they realized the artisans could really fix their broken pieces, could really “un-break [their] broken sconce.” 

Next year, the event will be moved to a new facility, but the process and the mission will remain the same: to serve the metal arts community, share their knowledge with new students, and connect the public to the world of metalwork. 

The Metals Studio 
The Metals Studio comprises two departments: the Blacksmith Shop and the Foundry. The Blacksmith Shop, or the Smithy, has been open to the public since 1985 and hosts special workshops featuring visiting artists as well as regular classes taught by resident artists. 

The studio spaces are designed to bring the public into the creative spaces where students work daily. There are glass walls all over the place that allow the public to see into the Foundry and the Smithy to see the processes for themselves. They can watch pieces being preserved and rebuilt in front of their own eyes.  

The museum’s Executive Director, Carissa Hussong, believes in turning every aspect of the Metal Museum’s teaching experience into a public exhibition space that is safe for the public and does not interfere with the creative work of the staff and students, but gives the artisans the option to interact directly. She hopes this aspect of the museum visitor experience will “light a fire” and create a passion for metalwork in some museum visitors. 

The Future of the Metal Museum 

The Metal Museum is always striving to bring its mission to larger audiences and to impact more lives. They are now turning their dream into reality. They are repurposing a world-class architectural building that houses the Memphis College of Art in Memphis’ Overton Park.  

The new facility gives them three times the space the Bluff Campus offers, allowing for exhibition, creative, and preservation spaces to be housed under one roof in a world-class facility. The new museum campus will be substantially complete in April 2026 with the public grand opening scheduled for September of 2026. The goal is to have next year’s Repair Days held at this new location. 

Get Involved 

The Metal Museum is a private, nonprofit organization that receives no ongoing government funding. Around half of its funding comes from the generosity of donors and members. If you would like to donate, you can do so here. If you attended this year’s Repair Days, feel free to send any photos to aisales@archirondesign.com.