Part 4 of the TED Radio Hour episode What Is Beauty?
About Bill Strickland's TEDTalk
Bill Strickland tells a quiet and astonishing tale of redemption through arts, music and unlikely partnerships.
About Bill Strickland
As a Pittsburgh youth besieged by racism in the crumbling remains of the steel economy, Bill Strickland should have been one of the Rust Belt's casualties. Instead, he discovered the potter's wheel and the transforming power of fountains, irrepressible dreams and the slideshow. While moonlighting as an airline pilot, Strickland founded Manchester Bidwell, a world-class institute in his native Pittsburgh devoted to vocational instruction in partnership with big business — and, almost incidentally, home to a Grammy-winning record label and a world-class jazz performance series.