We’re joined by Chicago-based metal artist Eric W. Stephenson, founder of LunaBurn Studio and a fifth-generation craftsman. In addition to his own extensive career creating metal sculpture, Stephenson spent the final 23 years of Richard Hunt’s life working alongside the legendary artist, helping bring ambitious abstract metal sculptures to life.

Stephenson talks about how Hunt’s career spanned more than 70 years and helped shape American metal sculpture, from his early civil rights–era work—including his response to the murder of Emmett Till—to major public commissions. His work appears in collections at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City, the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., and at the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. Stephenson reflects on the craft, the collaboration, and what it means to help carry forward Hunt’s life’s work today through the Richard Hunt Legacy Foundation.

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