After 45 years at the historic property on the banks of the Mississippi River, the Metal Museum is moving to Overton Park. The former Memphis College of Art main campus will be re-engineered to accommodate the museum, which will take on the newly minted moniker of 'Metal Museum: International Metal Arts Institute,' while preserving the iconic midcentury modern Rust Hall.
Designed by famed architect Roy Harrover, along with his company Harrover & Mann, in Overton Park in 1959, Rust Hall was the main building of the Memphis College of Art until the college closed in 2020. Harrover's design was innovative and is now considered an historic landmark in Memphis. He also designed the Memphis International Airport and Mud Island.
Metal Museum Executive Director, Carissa Hussong, has had a vision for expansion in mind as part of her plan to upgrade the institution since she took over leadership 17 years ago. While not a metalworker, Hussong’s background at the UrbanArt Commission and her multiple degrees in English Literature, Art History and an MBA have certainly informed her work on the Metal Museum’s mission to preserve, promote and advance the art and craft of fine metalwork. Hussong believes public art as essential to a thriving community. The Overton Square location she says, will be more “accessible to the community at large.” She adds the timing is right to open next year as “metal work is having a moment.”
With the board, she announced last summer at the “New Beginnings” event on the Bluff that the time was right to make their vision a reality. “Supporters agreed we needed more of everything,” says Hussong. These needs included spaces for artists to create and show their work, from fine art to welding to casting. “We want to engage more people and work more safely,” she says. There will be more exhibitions, after school programs, workshops, paid internships and professional training. Her timing is ideal as blacksmithing was recently declared by the New York Times as one of the fastest growing hobbies in the United States. And searches for blacksmithing classes were up over 500% last year according to Yelp.
Memphis-based LRK and Los Angeles-based wHY Architects are working together to renovate Rust Hall with careful attention to the character of the iconic building. Accessibility and visibility in the center of town will attract artists, students and visitors. The 75,000 square foot new facility will include a foundry, blacksmith shop, digital design lab, small metals studio and classrooms as well as an auditorium, roof top terrace and café. There will be a larger retail space and an expanded gallery for fine metal art. “We want to grow our collection from artists from all over the country,” says Hussong.
The Metal Museum was founded in 1979 on the historic Merchant Marine hospital grounds on a bluff above the Mississippi River. Metalsmith James “Wally” Wallace saw the space as ideal for blacksmithing and grew the 3.2 acres to include a foundry, galleries and a sculpture garden. The Metal Museum, officially named the National Ornamental Metal Museum, is the only one of its kind in the world. They currently offer classes, host guest artists and collect from metal artists all over the world. The current collection includes over 3,000 objects representing a broad spectrum of metalwork, including contemporary hollowware, sculpture and studio jewelry created by artist metalsmiths, as well as historic objects dating back to the Renaissance. The Metal Museum’s annual fundraiser, Repair Days, had record attendance in 2024.
The current campus with its 100-year history and unmatched views of the mighty Mississippi will continue as an event venue and offer an all new “Artist in Residence” program to attract talented metal artists and enthusiasts to visit the River City from around the world.
“Metal work is having a moment,” Carrisa Hussong, Executive Director of the Metal Museum.