Jessie Reid is a metal worker for the Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg. Courtesy of Jessie Reid

My editor recently forwarded me an email from Jessie Reid.

The email said: “I was born and raised in Williamsburg, and I am a metalworker for the Colonial Williamsburg Art Museum. I would like to figure out how my children and I can meet him. Would he be willing to join us for dinner at our home?”

I responded to his email saying, “I am honored by the invitation.”

The dinner, at the home of Jessie and his wife, Jaime, a pharmacist, was a delight. Their four children aged 10 to 14, all of them smart and engaging, peppered me with questions about how I survived the Holocaust and World War II.

During the dinner, I learned about Jessie’s work, and I found it fascinating.

I asked him to arrange a visit for me to the “belly of the art museum,” the workshops in the basement of the new wing of the museum. That is where many of the functions are performed associated with realizing the exhibit designs from blueprint to finished product.

I asked Jessie, what made him become a “metal worker” at Colonial Williamsburg?

“My father put tools in my hands at an early age and I grew up loving to work with my hands,” he said. “After high school I left Williamsburg and became a metal worker in the arts, in the Baltimore area, while earning a bachelor’s in fine arts and a master’s degree at the Maryland Institute College of Art.

“I focused on foundry work and fabricating monumental public sculpture. But I realized, the missing piece in my vocational skill was traditional blacksmithing. Colonial Williamsburg offered a modern-day apprenticeship program. I applied for the job and started working in 2016.”

What Jesse gained with additional satisfaction at his work was Colonial Williamsburg’s ongoing effort to engage local partners, such as the First Baptist Church, to discover and creatively address the adverse impact of racial discrimination of the past.

“It is great blessing for a metal worker to be surrounded with expertise and opportunities to learn every version of the craft,“ Jessie said. “I have seen iron uncovered during archeology, learned toolmaking over the fire, learned lathe work, and before that, casings and forgings.”

Jessie added, “I have been fortunate enough to continue my vocational calling and varied interest in metalwork, with my interest in history and the arts, under one roof at Colonial Williamsburg.”

In 2019, Jessie joined the exhibit team at the art museum as an exhibit technician in the metal shop to assist in exhibit fabrication.

From the newly minted metalwork studio beneath the museum, he uses an array of hand tools and power equipment for design, fabrication, finishing and installation of metal exhibition components such as custom object mounts. His shop is frequently asked to create structural support for gallery construction, lighting and installation of new exhibits.

The various workshops in the museum basement of the wing perform the many functions associated with realizing the exhibit designs from blueprint to finished products.

I had the opportunity to observe the creation of the new gallery to exhibit colonial musical instruments. Each instrument must be displayed not only in an attractive way, but also in a safe way. The metal mounts holding the instruments can’t touch the surface. Thus, invisible plastic shields or felt pads are used to protect the instruments.

According to Jessie, each studio in the “belly of the museum” has a unique function. The Fabric and Plastic studios are where models of future exhibitions are constructed, blocks, wedges and desks are finished with fabric covering, and acrylic case tops and components are manufactured.

The Exhibit Cabinet Shop constructs walls, cases, cabinets, decks, frames and graphic panels for each exhibition.

There are several other designated areas in the basement housing the “invisible hands” that make each exhibit at the Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg unique and memorable.

Shatz is a Williamsburg resident. He is the author of “Reports from a Distant Place,” the compilation of his selected columns. The book is available at the Bruton Parish Shop and Amazon.com.