Rhea Vedro

Rhea Vedro is a metalsmith creating at the intersection of arts and collective healing. Her research explores metalsmithing as a cultural signifier of values, power and protection across belief-systems and time. Trained first as a jeweler, her current studio practice is primarily hollow-form steel sculpture. Vedro is an Artist in Residence and Technical Instructor at MIT within the Department of Materials Science and Engineering Merton C. Flemings Materials Processing Laboratory. She is currently teaching Special Topics 3.S04 Fine Metals: objects and power, and 3.095 Introduction to Metalsmithing.

Vedro received a 2021-22 Now + There Accelerator Fellowship for public art in Boston and served as Director of Community Engagement with the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum from 2016-2021. Vedro taught metalsmithing at UW-Madison and SUNY New Paltz. Her project portfolio includes the City of Boston Mayor’s Office of Arts + Culture, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, North Bennet Street School, Vizcaya Museum, Queens Museum, El Museo del Barrio, The New York City Parks Foundation, and schools, shelters, prisons and community settings throughout the Americas. Vedro holds an MFA in Metalsmithing from SUNY New Paltz.