Inside one sprawling warehouse in West Oakland, California is a cacophony of heat and sound. There is the roar of furnaces, the clanging of metal on metal, the crackle of sparks. Jimi Hendrix plays in a distant corner. Leather-clad workers roam around the space, wielding fire, metal, and glass.

But these Hendrix fans are not grizzled motor heads at work. They’re kids. Highly confident, capable kids.

What once was an old paper tube factory is now the Crucible, the largest nonprofit industrial arts education facility in the United States. Founded by artist and teacher Michael Sturtz in 1999 — with a grant of just $1,750 — the goal was to reinvent arts education by democratizing the skills and materials traditionally reserved for experienced craftsmen. Since then, the Crucible has grown rapidly, with 90 faculty members now serving over 8,000 students every year.

Ismael Plasencia, who works with the youth program, is the unofficial tour guide for the facility. He wears a flat brimmed Golden State Warriors hat and sports a thick beard. Everyone calls him Iz. “In simplest terms,” he said, “a crucible is a container, like this one here, that holds hot liquid metal.” He held up a small, well-used ceramic urn as he spoke.

“But it’s not just that,” he added. “[The Crucible] is also a place where different parts interact to produce something new. There’s obviously a lot of hot metal in our building, but it’s also a place where students come to learn and transform. Nobody is the same when they leave this place.”

Students at the Crucible learn functional skills like welding, blacksmithing, blowing glass, turning wood, and working leather. But there may also be some outsize benefits to the organization’s “maker”-inspired curriculum.

“Holding a torch, being able to light that torch, and cut metal,” said Carla Hall, who directs youth programs, “there is incredible growth that happens. In our space, on the making path, [students] learn life skills; confidence, creative problem solving, tactile learning.”