Art in the Square – tile exhibition at Darmstadt Artists’ Colony

The third art nouveau event to report on this month is at the Darmstadt Artists’ Colony, famous for its wonderful art nouveau buildings. The exhibition mainly concerns art nouveau tiles and the centrepiece is a collection of English tiles, including designs by Wiliam De Morgan and tiles by Pilkington’s Tile & Pottery Co. See…

http://www.mathildenhoehe.eu/ausstellungen/ornament-im-quadrat/

Article with more photos… (press the translate button)

http://www.fnp.de/nachrichten/kultur/Darmstaedter-Mathildenhoehe-widmet-sich-der-Jugendstil-Fliese;art679,2517814

Nb. The Mathildenhöhe Institute has a wonderful website, see…

http://www.mathildenhoehe.eu/homepage/

BANAD – Brussels Art Nouveau Art Deco festival

The annual BANAD festival is all about Brussels’ art nouveau and deco heritage. It is now integrated into the city’s wider tourism drive and the following Guardian article and BANAD website give you a flavour of what has been on offer this year…

Bannad Website… http://www.banad.brussels/en/

Guardian article – https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2017/mar/13/10-top-tips-from-our-brussels-correspondent

Liberty in Italy

Liberty in Italy is an interesting Italian exhibition on the so-called minor artists of art nouveau. In their day, these were prominent practitioners and part of the cultural world that Edgar Wood experienced during his regular trips to Italy and his eventual retirement there. The exhibition has been so popular that the initial closing date of 14th February was extended till 1st April.

The exhibition website has a selection of images…

http://www.palazzomagnani.it/2016/07/liberty-in-italia/nggallery/slideshow

Buffalo, USA – Arts & Crafts Alliance – Frank Lloyd Wright Celebration

Starting on June 8, the 150th anniversary of Wright’s birth, the newly formed Buffalo Arts & Crafts Alliance will launch a four-month celebration of Wright’s work and Buffalo’s undersung role in the Arts & Crafts Movement.

Jonathan Katz, one of the alliance’s co-founders and organizer of the celebration, said it is an attempt to remind people about Buffalo’s central place in the legacy of American architecture and design and to reclaim its history as an incubator for one of the most important and wide-reaching aesthetic movements in American history.

Full report HERE

Illuminated After 115 Years

It has taken Ken Winters (top right) 15 years to achieve his goal of getting the Lindley Clock Tower illuminated. His ambition was realised at 5.30pm today as he and local Councillors activated the flood lighting. Representatives from the Edgar Wood Society (Middleton) attended giving support to their Yorkshire ‘cousins’.

James Sykes, Edgar Wood’s uncle commissioned EW to design the tower, which is some 83 feet tall with walls 2 feet thick and of local stone. Completed in 1902 with sculptures by Stirling Lee. More of Stirling Lee’s work can be seen in the Arts and Craft Church (Long Street Methodist) birth place of Edgar Wood and his ‘masterpiece’ in Middleton.

New Arts and Crafts Website for West London

7 Hammersmith Terrace

A new website has just been launched highlighting West London’s Arts and Crafts heritage. The site is part of a £1 million Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) supported project that explains the Arts & Crafts Movement and how artists and craftsmen were drawn to Hammersmith because of two people – William Morris and Sir Emery Walker. The website coincides with the renovation of the William Morris Society’s building at 26 Upper Mall and Emery Walker’s residence at 7 Hammersmith Terrace.

Go to…

http://www.artsandcraftshammersmith.org.uk

 

Embroidery at the Arts & Crafts Church

Embroidery
Embroidery Course with Helen Jones of the Royal School of Needlework

Here we have a new Arts & Crafts project for you. Why not… learn to embroider and have some fun?

CLICK HERE to download pdf

Book via EventBrite only

This is a day for those of you who would like to acquire or refresh some embroidery skills.  Perhaps you want to move beyond cross stitch, perhaps you want to remind yourself of skills learnt in the past, or perhaps you simply want to have an enjoyable day learning something new at The Arts & Crafts Church.

This day offers an introduction to surface stitching on linen fabric using crewel wools.  By the end of the day you will have learnt enough to be able to finish your kit at home.  The course will take place in one of the meeting rooms in the historic setting of Long Street Methodist Church.

The course price is £45 + booking fee and for that you will receive five hours tuition, a kit with all necessary materials and instructions, tea/coffee etc.  You can borrow embroidery frames and scissors on the day at no charge.  For lunch you can bring your own or buy something at Ye Olde Boar’s Head PH, the oldest pub in the North-West, just next door.

The day will be lead by Helen Jones, an accredited tutor with the Royal School of Needlework  – see http://www.royal-needlework.org.uk/courses/tutor_details/69

Book via EventBrite only

Saving a Century – Victorian Society Exhibition

Saving a Century – Victorian Society Exhibition

The Victorian Society’s photographic exhibition Saving a Century, curated by noted architectural historian Gavin Stamp, is on show free of charge at The John Rylands Library, 150 Deansgate, Manchester, M3 3EH, from 8 January – 24 March, daily during Library hours.

Using archive photographs and material from over fifty years of the Victorian Society’s fight to save historic buildings, the exhibition charts the successes and defeats of the organisation that has done so much to change public attitudes towards the nineteenth century’s best architecture. After more than 60 venues around Britain this is the final showing of the exhibition, which includes local images from Manchester, Oldham, Ashton-under-Lyne, Middleton, Preston and Nelson.

THE FOUNDATION OF THE VICTORIAN SOCIETY – Photographs and material from the opening meetings of the Society. Early members included architect Hugh Casson, architectural historian Christopher Hussey, Sir Nikolaus Pevsner and Sir John Betjeman.

THE EUSTON MURDER AND OTHER CASES – Photographs and text documenting the bitter battle for the Euston Arch, as well some of the Victorian Society’s other early defeats. There were early victories too, among them the Oxford University Museum, proposed for demolition in 1961 to make way for new science buildings. The Victorian Society also succeeded in getting the Broad Street Building of Balliol College listed, after it was threatened with a re-build in 1963.

VICTORY IN WHITEHALL – Photographs charting the heroic, ten-year campaign against plans to demolish much of the historic square mile, including nearly every building south of Downing Street and Richmond Terrace. Sir George Gilbert Scott’s Foreign Office, Richard Norman Shaw’s New Scotland Yard and Middlesex Guildhall in Parliament Square were among the buildings proposed for demolition.

PLACES OF WORSHIP – A photographic survey of some of the historic churches, chapels and synagogues with which the Victorian Society has been involved. As churches are exempt from the secular planning system, it can be particularly difficult to guard them against insensitive change. With falling attendance figures and a growing number of redundant places of worship, the future of our best churches is one of the biggest challenges facing heritage campaigners today.

RAILWAY BUILDINGS – Photographs of some of the key buildings the Victorian Society fought for, as the closure of many branch and other railway lines resulted in the redundancy of numerous stations, bridges and viaducts. That many pioneering and magnificent railway structures, such as St Pancras Station, survive today, often still in use, is very much owing to the efforts of the Society.

IRON, GLASS & STONE – Photographs of some of the most innovative nineteenth century buildings, among them Clevedon Pier, Islington’s Royal Agricultural Hall and Bradford’s Kirkgate Market, for which the Victorian Society has fought.

THE FUNCTIONAL TRADITION – Photographs of some of the most impressive industrial buildings for which the Society has fought. With the decline of the traditional industries of the North of England after the Second World War, many mills and warehouses became redundant while many Northern towns and cities became ashamed of their Victorian industrial legacy and anxious to replace it with something new. The Victorian Society, along with bodies such as SAVE Britain’s Heritage, argued that nineteenth century industrial buildings were evocative and substantial structures which were not only of historical importance but capable of gainful re-use.

THE PURPLE OF COMMERCE – Photographs of some of the most significant Victorian commercial buildings to have come under threat in the last fifty years. Built partly as self-advertisements and partly to inspire confidence, these ambitious and substantial banks, offices and warehouses too often fall victim to redevelopment schemes.

COUNTRY HOUSES – Photographs of some of the grandest country houses to have been the subject of Victorian Society campaigns, among them Shadwell Park, Tyntesfield and Highcliffe Castle. Rendered redundant by social and cultural changes, some of the most famous large houses were demolished between the wars while many more disappeared in the 1950s.

DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE – A collection of photographs of some of the Victorian villas and terraced houses for which the Victorian Society has fought. Often extravagant and fanciful buildings, these buildings are regularly demolished to allow higher density developments in their grounds or make way for flats.

PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS – A photographic survey of some of the best municipal buildings that have been saved or lost. Physical embodiments of the Victorians’ strong sense of civic pride and duty, many of these splendid town halls, libraries, swimming pools, museums, art galleries and post offices still add much to the rich character of British towns and cities today.

BEACONS OF THE FUTURE – A survey of some of the Society’s most recent campaigns, focusing on the battle for Victorian schools and swimming pools. Among the battles highlighted are the protest and funeral forBonner School, the Public Inquiry for Easington Colliery School and the local campaign for the Moseley Road Baths in Birmingham.

THE VICTORIANS VICTORIOUS – Photographs of some of the most notable Victorian buildings used and valued today.

Family Archive on Edgar Wood’s Arkholme Saved

2016-02-23 10-51-28_0065A collection of documents and photographs about Edgar Wood’s Arkholme, 1 Towncroft Avenue formerly belonging to the Taylor family is to go to the Edgar Wood Middleton archive, thanks to historian Geoff Wellens.

The collection is a crucial source of information on what is Edgar Wood’s very first flat roofed design. It was erected in 1901 a year or two before he met J. Henry Sellers, with whom he was to pioneer art deco design.

No 1 Towncroft Ave_2The material includes photographs of the house as it was in the days of its first occupant, Edgar Wood’s friend Charles Jackson, brother of painter Fredrick Jackson, before it was (sensitively) altered in the 1950s by the Taylor family. It also has images of Towncroft Avenue being widened, letters and invoices from tradespeople who worked on the house.

The Edgar Wood archive is managed by the Society curator Nick Baker.

Archer, John letter to Nan Taylor