Speakers Announced for 25th Anniversary Conference

How do you top 24 years of ground-breaking research, new discoveries, fresh information and powerful seminar speakers?

You go back to the beginning.

The first book I bought on the Arts & Crafts movement was Robert Judson Clark's 1972 Princeton Exhibition catalog, "The Arts & Crafts Movement in America." While we lamented and eulogized Robert's passing at last February's Grove Park Inn Arts & Crafts Conference, forty years later his influence is still echoing strong.

Robert recognized the distinctions among the different regions in the country in how their artists and artisans responded to the 'new' Arts & Crafts movement. Rather than focusing on just a few individuals or attempting an encyclopedic listing of every maker and manufacturer, he divided the country into regions and explored the ways each one interpreted the philosophy of hand-craftsmanship, native materials and motifs, and the elimination of needless ornamentation.

Following his lead, the 25th anniversary Arts & Crafts Conference will feature five speakers who will answer the common question for each of five regions: what is unique about their region's interpretation of the Arts & Crafts movement?

Author Beverly Brandt will open with the seemingly diversified East Coast, from Stickley to Saturday Evening Girls, Rohlfs to Roycroft. She will be followed by fellow author and curator Christian Carron who will undertake the Midwest's approach to Arts & Crafts, from Prairie School architecture to the furniture factories of Grand Rapids.

On Saturday morning Robert Rust will prove that there is more to the Rocky Mountain region than Van Briggle pottery, while Bruce Smith will trace the development of the Arts & Crafts style on the West Coast in a talk entitled "From Bungalows To Hot Tubs" (yes, there were Arts & Crafts hot tubs).

On Sunday I will team up with Dianne Ayres, whose talk is entitled "Unraveling the Mystery of Arts & Crafts Textiles," while I finish our regional approach with "The South: From Mountain Crafts to Arts & Crafts" - as soon as I figure out a way to categorize George Ohr…. or not.

For information on the February 17-19 Grove Park Inn Arts & Crafts Conference, please go to http://www.arts-craftsconference.com.

Hope to see you there!

- Bruce Johnson