BAC/IMI Play Host to One Million Visitors

BAC craftsmanship was celebrated in a big way this summer in Washington, D.C. in recognition of the skill and artistry it takes to create great buildings, and the workers that build them. More than one million visitors got to appreciate quality BAC craftsmanship and pride firsthand. This year’s Smithsonian Folklife Festival honored Masters of the Building Arts.

BAC President John J. Flynn, during one of his frequent visits to the exhibit site, said, “We’re enormously proud that BAC was the only union to have such an extensive exhibit. Many of the visitors to the Festival—from the youngest to the oldest—took a turn at learning to lay brick or set tile. It was the type of public relations effort that no amount of money could buy.”

Brick and Block

The BAC/IMI exhibit, the Festival’s largest, served as the anchor of the Building Arts compound, located on the National Mall—a stretch of open land between the U.S. Capitol and the Washington Monument. The exhibit featured live demonstrations, and dramatic walls and other displays that showcased the full range of masonry crafts. Even Washington’s heat and humidity didn’t dampen the enthusiasm. “Once people stopped by our area, they were hooked—wild horses couldn’t drag them away,” noted BAC Secretary-Treasurer Jim Boland. The exhibit even passed muster with the toughest masonry experts, members of the BAC Executive Council, whose July meeting in Washington was scheduled to coincide with the Festival.

Tile/Marble/Terrazzo

Throughout the ten days of the Festival, active and retired members shared their craft stories on an open-air stage in the center of the Building Arts compound. Topics included the BAC/IMI apprenticeship and training system, marble masonry, and the building of the National Cathedral, to name a few, as well as some of the less publicly-known crafts, such as refractory and terrazzo.

Plaster

The opportunity for the general public to meet the skilled craftworkers and apprentices, who continue to build America, “reassured people that quality workmanship is alive and well,” says Smithsonian curator Marjorie Hunt. “The BAC/IMI exhibit was outstanding. Everyone loved the quality of the interaction, as well as the skill. They are great communicators, as well as great craftspeople,” she added.

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