From Morris to Frank Lloyd Wright: The International Arts and Crafts Movement

The writings of John Ruskin and William Morris found an eager audience from Scandinavia to California. Both struck a chord with readers; one that still resonates today, as too many of us appear to ‘live to work’ rather than ‘work to live’. In their search for the Good Life, craft workers founded close-knit rural communities, such as the Roycroft Campus of East Aurora, NY, and Arden, Delaware. Although craftwork drew on traditional forms and techniques, the outlook was ‘progressive’ as this counter-culture envisaged a better quality of life for both makers and consumers. The simple and refined aesthetics of the Arts and Crafts ethos would create rational and beautiful homes leading to a harmonious society. In America, the watch words were simplicity, restraint and order. Can the minimalism of today, the desire for ‘fewer better things’, be traced to the Arts and Crafts movement?

This 8 week course has a half term on the 31 May.

£399 full price, £359 over 60s, £325 concessions
(concessions are available for ES40 holders and registered disabled people)