“The Arts and Crafts Movement at Home” : Online Presentations Continue with Arts and Crafts Pottery, Metalwork, Furniture

by Kate Nixon

 

Last Saturday was an online reunion of sorts of Arts and Crafts collectors from all over the country. One by one, 77 collectors and enthusiasts, from the comfort of their own homes, logged into an online meeting room using the popular Zoom software to see a live presentation from the log cabin of the Stickley Museum at Craftsman Farms.

 

 

Jonathan Clancy, Director of Collections and Preservation and Vonda Givens, the Museum’s Executive Director, held the first of four online sessions of the popular class “Living the Simple Life: The Arts and Crafts Movement at Home,” where Clancy gave a presentation on The “Simple Life” Explained: The Arts and Crafts Movement in Context, an overview of the movement and the historical figures that inspired the philosophies collectors know and love. After a brief description from Givens on how the event would go, Clancy appeared via his web camera to introduce himself and went straight into his powerpoint, which was easily shared on the screen for all 77 in attendance. After the informational and entertaining powerpoint, a brief Q&A session was held, where interested participants clicked a “hand raise” icon and would appear on screen to ask their question.

 

 

The start of these virtual classes, a necessity with classrooms finishing the school year and now trending with other organizations, bring about exciting new opportunities for organizations to connect with supporters and enthusiasts – an opportunity needed in order to recoup operational costs. “It was exciting to see 77 friends from all across the country in our virtual classroom last Saturday! 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 Executive Director Vonda Givens. In the absence of tours, bus groups, Girl Scout programs, the classes give organizations like the Stickley Museum the life blood it needs.

 

Jonathan Clancy, Director of Collections and Preservation at the Stickley Museum at Craftsman Farms, gives a preview of Saturday’s upcoming class “In Defence of Fire: The Pottery of the Arts and Crafts Movement”

 

The next presentation, entitled “In Defence of Fire”: The Pottery of the Arts and Crafts Movement, will delve into the rise of art pottery at the turn of the century. According to presenter Jonathan Clancy’s description, this session will highlight the exciting advance of American potters and their ceramic works.

Well before the term “Arts and Crafts” was coined to describe the movement in 1888, Americans began an experiment with pottery that would lead to an explosion of creativity and technical prowess that brought unprecedented acclaim to firms and individuals across the nation.  Chastised for their poor showing in this “neglected branch of art” at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial, American potters came to dominate the World’s Fair’s in 1893, 1900, and 1904 with firms like Rookwood, Grueby, and Van Briggle receiving the highest honors.  This class tracks the rise of the American Art potters and from the 1870s through the 1910s.

– Jonathan Clancy, Dir. of Collections and Preservation, The Stickley Museum at Craftsman Farms

 

Given the response to the first of the virtual sessions, Givens hopes to implement more of these programs. “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,” says Givens. “We’re grateful that so many supporters were willing to go on this ‘adventure’ with us and look forward to launching more virtual programs.”

 

To sign up for the online sessions, please follow the directions below:

We expect this week’s session on pottery to sell out. So anyone interested should register now at our website: Course registration link. Then look for a receipt in email (it might go into junk mail!). Any registered participant who doesn’t receive a receipt, should email us right away at [email protected]. We need to ensure you can receive our emails so that you’ll get the Zoom invitation link, which will go out at least twice to participants before the class session starts. And if you’re new to Zoom, our email messages include a lot of tips and links to tutorials that will help you have the best experience possible.

 

The schedule of classes is listed below.

Dates: Four Online Saturday Sessions – April 4, 11, 18, 25

Time: 1 pm – 2 pm EST

Fee: $25 per session

Location: ZOOM (online) *

Presented by: Jonathan Clancy, Director of Collections and Preservation with Vonda Givens, Executive Director

 

Schedule:

Sat., April 11 at 1:00 p.m. EST:

Pottery: “In Defence of Fire”: The Pottery of the Arts and Crafts Movement

Sat., April 18 at 1:00 p.m. EST:

Metalwork: “By Hammer and Hand”: Arts and Crafts Metalwork

Sat., April 25 at 1:00 p.m. EST:

Furniture: “Something to Foster Rugged Independence”: Furniture of the Arts and Crafts Movement