“Living the Simple Life” Online Classes Extended for Three More Weeks!
If you’ve just now discovered the benefits of the Zoom environment and fear that you’ve missed out, have no fear. The Stickley Museum at Craftsman Farms will have you covered for another four weekends.
The online series of classes “Living the Simple Life: The Arts and Crafts Movement at Home” has now been extended through mid-May with the addition of three new sessions about various facets of the Arts and Crafts movement. The upcoming session on April 25th “Something to Foster Rugged Independence: Furniture of the Arts and Crafts Movement” will give an overview of Arts and Crafts Era furniture; the recently added classes will cover Arts and Crafts lighting on May 2nd, delve into Gustav Stickley furniture on May 9th, and lastly covering Arts and Crafts style textiles and accessories on May 16th.
The Zoom sessions feature Jonathan Clancy, Director of Collections and Preservation, assisted by Executive Director Vonda Givens and Kristen McCauley, giving a powerpoint presentation of the popular series “Living the Simple Life: The Arts and Crafts Movement at Home” an overview of several facets and iconic figures of the movement. Users must acquire a Zoom account in order to access the popular teleconferencing software. During the sessions, users can expect to see – in addition to a very informative presentation – the faces of participating attendees who choose to have their cameras on (users can optionally turn off their cameras, users’ microphones will be muted during the presentation). After the presentation, a brief Q&A session is held, where interested participants click a “hand raise” icon and can appear on screen to ask their question, which will be answered by the Stickley Museum crew.
The web cameras of Jonathan Clancy, Vonda Givens, and Kristen McCauley – the crew of the “Living the Simple Life” sessions live from The Stickley Museum at Craftsman Farms. Photo from The Stickley Museum of Craftsman Farms Facebook page.
Jonathan Clancy, Director of Collections and Preservation, shows examples of Arts and Crafts era copper works during last weekend’s “By Hammer and Hand: Arts and Crafts Metalwork” session. Photo from the Stickley Museum at Craftsman Farms Facebook page.
The series of classes has been praised by participants from all over the country for its educational material as well as the opportunity to see the faces of fellow collectors in the tight-knit community of Arts and Crafts enthusiasts. “I love that the ‘Living the Simple Life’ classes have been able to both extend the Mission of the Stickley Museum at Craftsman Farms during this time when live face to face interactions are not possible, and to bring together ‘friends’ in Arts and Crafts community for understanding and conversation who may not have been able to join us physically before, “ says Barbara Weiskittel, President of the Board of the Stickley Museum at Craftsman Farms. “I look forward to Saturday and the opportunity to learn something new while engaging with friends, both known and new.”
The start of virtual classes bring about exciting new opportunities for organizations to connect with supporters and enthusiasts. The cost of each session of the course is $25 and will go to cover operational costs for the museum once the restrictions have been lifted, giving the chance for enthusiasts country-wide to support the legacy of the museum. “We hope participants enjoy the class and the knowledge that their class fees are helping ensure we can come back strong when we’re able to open to the public again,” says Givens. However new and foreign this new world of strictly online content is, the support of the online collector and enthusiast community has shown the evidence of a good direction.
“Virtual classes are new to the Stickley Museum at Craftsman Farms, and the enthusiastic response to this first course has been exciting and reinforcing that we’re moving in a good direction. We’re grateful that so many supporters were willing to go on this ‘adventure’ with us.”
REGISTRATION FOR ALL CLASSES IS OPEN. Click on the link below to register for one or more classes featured below:
Schedule for April/May 2020
(click the link above to register for the following courses)
Saturday, April 25 | 1-2pm EST
“Something to Foster Rugged Independence”: Furniture of the Arts and Crafts Movement
Presented by Jonathan Clancy, Director of Collections and Preservation with Vonda Givens, Executive Director
Fee: $25
Writing in The Craftsman in October 1902, Samuel Howe described “the severe furniture” made by the United Crafts as “something to foster rugged independence and masterful resolution, and to exhibit a resourcefulness greatly needed in these times.” This class examines the different ways that furniture makers and the forms they produced met the ideals of the movement and catered to the needs of modern consumers. In examining the works of Gustav Stickley, The Roycrofters, Byrdcliffe, Charles Rohlfs, and others, we better see a diversity of aesthetic approaches to the movement as well as different economic concerns of the makers.
Saturday, May 2 | 1-2 PM EST
“A Feeling of Simplicity and Unstudied Freedom”: Lighting the Arts and Crafts Home
Presented by Jonathan Clancy, Director of Collections and Preservation with Vonda Givens, Executive Director
Fee: $25
“There is no question,” The Craftsman informed readers, “that of all the methods of lighting a house, electricity affords the greatest scope for decorative treatment, both in the arrangement of the lights themselves and in their effect upon the entire scheme of decoration.” This class provides an overview of the major makers of Arts and Crafts lighting–from Stickley, to Roycroft, to Van Erp and others–who succeeded in what providing homes with what Stickley called “a feeling of simplicity and unstudied freedom.”
Saturday, May 9 | 1-2 PM EST
“Bold, Clear, and Distinguished”: A Closer Look at the Furniture of Gustav Stickley
Presented by Jonathan Clancy, Director of Collections and Preservation with Vonda Givens, Executive Director
Fee: $25
Describing the furniture of Stickley’s United Crafts in The Craftsman in October 1902, Samuel Howe described it as “bold, clear, and distinguished,” finding in it “a breezy independence, a sturdy human decency.” This class provides a closer look at Stickley’s furniture, focusing on his work between 1898 to his bankruptcy in 1917. More than simply a survey of Stickley’s work, this class also features new research that forces us to reconsider the names and dates presently associated with many of these objects.
Saturday, May 16 | 1-2 PM EST
“The New Feeling for Form and Color”: Textiles and Accessories in the Craftsman Home
Presented by Jonathan Clancy, Director of Collections and Preservation with Vonda Givens, Executive Director
Fee: $25
Throughout the magazine’s history, Stickley used The Craftsman to demonstrate how textiles, floor coverings, and baskets could be used to bring a sense of warmth and cohesiveness to the interiors his firm designed and promoted. If the grammar of his Arts and Crafts furniture tended towards the rectilinear and plain, it was the accessories of the home that helped to enliven the space and broaden that language to bring include the natural world, Native American designs, and bright color in that environment. It was, as The Craftsman noted, “the new feeling for form and color” that tied together and completed the home.