The New Orleans Master Crafts Guild seeks to revive the traditional building trades traditions of New Orleans and provide apprenticeship training for new generations of master craftsmen through the use of cooperative business practices.
The Guild pursues three primary strategies to realize this:
– Apprenticeships to train new generations of master craftsmen with the skills to earn sustainable wages;
– Capacity building for independent master craftsmen to grow their businesses through cooperative marketing, technical assistance, and employee training;
– Cultural engagement to promote the indispensability of New Orleans’ unique building arts traditions through demonstrations, cultural events and collaborations with high profile artists.
Apprentices receive high-level training in the architectural preservation trades from the region’s best master craftsmen. Two skill tracts are currently offered:
- Trowel Trades – ornamental and specialty plastering, masonry and tile setting and
- Ironwork – welding and blacksmithing.