“The first time I hit a piece of hot steel was the most clear moment I’ve ever had in my entire life,” says John Medwedeff. “I knew I’d found my calling.”
For over four decades, the 2025 Midwest Culture Bearer awardee has done his part to keep the art and craft of metalwork thriving. From public installations to corporate commissions, restoration work to education, Medwedeff’s hammer has made an impact across the U.S.
His blend of metalsmithing and sculpture has led to remarkable commissions including intricate custom railings, two-story sculptures, even championship trophies for professional golf tournaments.
From a Spark to a Career
Though he grew up in Tennessee, it was a trip at age 10 to the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, that originally sparked his interest in metalsmithing. Watching blacksmiths at work in the living history side of the museum, he says, “just fired my imagination.”
As a teenager, Medwedeff got a $20 anvil from a flea market and taught himself some basics. “I would hammer on flattened-out pieces of copper pipe, make weird-looking belt buckles,” he remembers.
At 19, he began a three-year apprenticeship with James “Wally” Wallace, the founding director of the Metal Museum in Memphis. That experience became the foundation of Medwedeff’s career.
“I followed his example and owe my career to him. Few people leave a legacy so large as Jim Wallace. I am one of many whose lives are shaped by working with him,” he says of his lifelong mentor and friend.
Since then, he’s received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in metalsmithing from Southern Illinois University Carbondale, opened his studio in Murphysboro, Illinois, and mentored dozens of young smiths. He’s lectured at colleges, conferences, and craft schools and spent 17 years on the board of the Metal Museum. But it is in public art—about 60-70 percent of his work—that Medwedeff sees his creations make the biggest difference.
Art That Draws You In
“[Public art] lifts people up. It does something for the community,” he says. “My job is to communicate to people what can be beautiful, interesting, educational, spiritual even, and reach people through that.”
He recalls how his sculptural fountain for downtown Murphysboro became a regular backdrop for newscasts and wedding photos. Another sculpture, “Whirl” installed on the Bluff in Memphis, was voted “best place for a free date”. And while installing “Centripetal” at the Sarasota County Courthouse in Florida, he noticed everyone—from the judges to the defendants—pause to marvel on their way to court.
“Public art becomes part of the fabric of people’s lives,” he says, stressing its importance.
Medwedeff’s medium of choice is part of what draws people in.
“Humans love metal,” he says. “On a biological level, our blood has iron in it. It is of the earth, just as stone is. Metal is a fundamental thing.”
The art and craft of metalsmithing take this profound connection even further. “Taking metal, shaping it, hammering it, extends the work of generations of smiths before you, which is thousands of years of work,” says Medwedeff. “You’re a part of that tradition and that mindset of making.”
This rich tradition makes his recent recognition as a culture bearer personally meaningful, he says. “It’s an affirmation that I’ve been doing worthwhile things.”