Meeting Announcement:

Arts and Crafts Textiles

with

Deborah Kraak

at

The Burke Museum

University of Washington Campus

Tuesday, March 8, 2005, 7:00 PM

The Arts and Crafts Movement was a response to a century of unprecedented social and economic upheaval, and a reaction against the emphasis on mechanization that characterized the Industrial Revolution. Its name was coined in 1887, when a group of designers met in London to found an organization—the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society—for which applied art would be valued as equal to fine art. Many in the movement championed the moral and spiritual uplift that would come with the revival of making objects by hand. The improvement of working conditions, the integration of art into everyday life, the unity of all arts, and an aesthetic resulting from the use of indigenous materials and native traditions also were central to the movement’s philosophy.

The Arts and Crafts Movement offered a variety of responses to the challenges of modernity, and by 1900 it had spread throughout Europe and North America. Among the well-known artists and craftspeople inspired by the movement were William Morris, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, the pre-Raphaelites, and in the US Gustav Stickley and Frank Lloyd Wright.

Deborah Kraak will be presenting a slide lecture on the textiles of the Arts and Crafts movement. Ms. Kraak has been working in the costume and textile field for over 20 years. She has a Masters Degree from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, and she has been on the curatorial staff of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and Winterthur outside Philadelphia. She has taught in the Cooper-Hewitt Masters Program in the Decorative Arts for 12 years, and she has also lectured at Sotheby's, Christie's, and the Baltimore Museum of Art. This talk coincides with a special exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art entitled The Arts and Crafts Movement in Europe and America, 1880–1920: Design for the Modern World. Those with an opportunity to be in LA before April 3 might be inspired to visit the show.

Meeting Schedule:

7:00 Mix and mingle. Announcements.

7:15 Deborah Kraak – “Arts and Crafts Textiles”

8:15 Show and tell – if you wish, please bring an interesting textile you’d like to share with the group. Something from the Arts and Crafts period would be particularly appropriate.

Please note: This meeting is free to all members, $5.00 at the door for guests. As always, all are welcome.

Meeting Location:

The Burke Museum is located at the Northwest corner of the University of Washington campus, near the corner of 17^th Avenue NE and NE 45^th Street. The Burke Room is on the left side of the lobby as you enter off of 17^th. Parking is available in the lot just South of the Burke Museum, or on the street in the University District.