Special Event: Master Blacksmith Panel Discussion

Join us at the Hennage Auditorium on Monday, June 17 for a special panel discussion with Jonn Hankins, Darryl Reeves, and Karina Roca. These leaders of the restoration and preservation field from New Orleans will discuss the challenges and opportunities in the field of Historic Preservation and the restoration trades. The panel discussion will be led by Ken Schwarz, master blacksmith with the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. 

Jonn Hankins is head of the New Orleans Master Crafts Guild, an organization that promotes apprenticeships in the preservation trades that has historically employed skilled African American artisans to build and maintain the renowned architectural landscapes of the urban south. He will speak on preserving cultural legacies of excellence in the building arts community necessary for nurturing a new generation of masters of the building arts.  

Master blacksmith Darryl Reeves has restored and fabricated much of the traditional as well as contemporary ironwork in the French Quarter and other historic districts of New Orleans for half a century. He will speak on the importance of the intergenerational transfer of trade skills through mentorship and apprentice training. 

Karina Roca is currently an apprentice ironworker working with Darryl Reeves and is enrolled in the Historic Preservation program at Tulane University in New Orleans. She will speak on her experiences as an apprentice and her optimistic outlook for advancement in historic restoration and preservation.