Here is an upcoming Spring/Summer exhibition in Leicester that looks interesting… CLICK HERE for details.
Mary Sloane: A Portrait of the Artist
The Nature of William S. Rice: Arts and Crafts Painter and Printmaker
The Nature of William S. Rice: Arts and Crafts Painter and Printmaker – A Californian Arts and Crafts master is celebrated in a new exhibition at the Pasadena Museum. REPORT HERE
Arts & Crafts stained glass makers workshop…
Mission and Heritage – Methodist Christmas Message
Mission and Heritage – Methodist Christmas Message – Revd Steven Wild, President of the Methodist Church, gives his Christmas message – Click Here for Rochdale Online article
Wilhelmina Geddes rediscovered in new book
Wilhelmina Geddes rediscovered in new book – Wilhelmina Geddes: Life and Work, by Nicola Gordon Bowe… Jasmine Allen admires the monumental scale and meticulous detail of a stained glass artist’s work.
Image – Wikimedia Commons by Bill Norman
Turner Prize rediscover the art of controversy
art deco cinemas of Scotland
Here is a nice collection of deco cinemas in Scotland which shows the variety of design that is called art deco.
Christopher Dresser
Dr. Christopher Dresser (1834-1904) changed the course of “modernist” design more than any other individual in Britain at the end of the 19th century… CLICK HERE FOR MORE
Image: Japanesque Style Cup and Saucer, circa 1879-1882. Wikimedia Commons – Los Angeles County Museum of Art http://collections.lacma.org/node/184492
‘The Arts and Crafts House: Then and Now’
‘The Arts and Crafts House: Then and Now’ exhibition at the Laing Art Gallery explores, within an intimate space, the legacy of artists of the 19th century Arts and Crafts movement.
CLICK HERE for article.
State of the Art: British craftmanship
…despite almost everything we buy being made in China these days, the feeling for craftsmanship in Britain has never gone away.
Arts and Crafts garden village in Newport gets underway
Housing developer Lovell has signed contracts and begun construction on the second phase of its garden village development in Newport.
Restoration of Edgar Wood’s ‘Redcroft’
Rupert Hilton of Alan Gardner Associates has set up a Twitter hastag #Redcroft so people can follow the repair and restoration of Edgar Wood’s home built in 1891. The listed building heritage statement can be downloaded from this page.
Round House goes on the market for £700,000
The Round House, Frinton, Essex, designed by Oliver Hill the creator of Morecambe’s famous Midland Hotel (pictured) is up for sale for a modest £700,000!
Main article with photographs is here.
Another about the art deco Frinton Park Estate is here.
Weaving together strings to master planner’s bow
The granddaughter of Letchworth master planner Barry Parker has welcomed the renewed attention around his work. This comes after the Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation commissioned historian Dr Mervyn Miller to write the biography of the architect and planner who took his garden city designs around the world.
Barry Parker was an architect member of the Northern Art Workers Guild. He and his professional colleague Raymond Unwin were a good friends of Edgar Wood, whose assistant Cecil Hignet, joined them in designing Letchworth. Parker considered his finest house to be, “Whirriestone”, 15 Broadhalgh Avenue Bamford. (Bamford, like Birtle and Ashworth is a Middleton township which was transferred to Heywood in late Victorian times before being ‘rejoined’ with Middleton in 1974 via Rochdale Metropolitan Borough).
Letchworth Garden City broke the mould in town planning but possibly Barry Parker’s greatest achievement was the much larger third English Garden City, Wythenshaw near Manchester which was significantly bigger than the first two, Letchworth and Welwyn Garden City, combined.
Frozen in Time
Arts and Crafts Church photographer, Andy Marshall, is on a mission to collect 100 dates over 100 years, and display them in a very special print. CLICK HERE
You are invited to to the opening event…
Date: Tuesday 8th December 2015, 7pm – 9pm
Venue: Rosylee, 11 Stevenson Sq. Northern Quarter, Manchester M1 1DB
Garden Cities & Suburbs alive and well
On Tuesday 10th November, I went to Warrington New Town for an afternoon seminar about Garden Cities and Suburbs – looking back at the successes and forward to the future. Driving there through the stunningly autumnal parkways of the new town reminded me about the enormous social progress that came out of the Arts and Crafts movement. Josh Tidy, curator of Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation, spoke about the historic legacy of the first garden city.
The new towns, bigger successors to the original three Garden Cities of Letchworth, Welwyn Garden City and Wythenshaw, now lead the country in their growth and success with Warrington and Milton Keynes being the top of the pack. The place is such a civilised world away from the squalor of Victorian Britain. Edgar Wood would have been inspired! The event was organised by the Town and Country Planning Association, the successor of the original Garden Cities Association.
David Morris
Architect urges Isle of Man to look after heritage
An expert on historic buildings has condemned the island’s record on architectural conservation.
Accredited architect and author Diane Haigh was in the island to give an illustrated talk at the Manx Museum organised by the Isle of Man Victorian Society to coincide with what would have been the 150th birthday of Baillie Scott, a leading light of the Arts and Crafts movement.
Edgar Wood’s Immaculate Dream – New Book “Lost & Imagined Manchester”
“Edgar Wood’s grandest design would have transformed part of Manchester and transformed it gloriously with a capital G. During research for a new book Lost & Imagined Manchester, coming out this week, Jonathan Schofield came across a scheme by Wood that if it had been built and somehow survived would have made excursions to Port Sunlight from Manchester redundant. This would have been the garden village/model village par excellence for the North of England, indeed, of anywhere in the country, complete with art gallery, public baths, meeting hall, extensive gardens, fountains, churches and a school.” Jonathan Schofield
Museums Take a New Look at Art Nouveau
Museums in Hamburg, Germany, and Rome are staging exhibitions about the art nouveau style, while auction houses take renewed interest in the movement.
Liberty in Fashion exhibition
Peacock feathers are back in the news and celebrated in a charming exhibition called Liberty in Fashion, which is running at the Fashion and Textile Museum in Bermondsey Street, SE1.
The show celebrates the 140th anniversary of the world-famous department store opened by Arthur Lasenby Liberty in Regent Street in 1875.