Meet Us in Michigan!
by Vonda Givens, Executive Director
The travel program of the Stickley Museum at Craftsman Farms, called Farms Afield, is focused on group experiences, both as single-day and multi-day adventures, with an Arts and Crafts focus. Farms Afield is a benefit of membership, bringing together members from all over the country to enjoy exclusive site-seeing opportunities together. This July, the museum will host a three-day Michigan Meet-up from July 20-23.
We’ll explore this beautiful state’s Arts and Crafts roots—the Detroit Society of Arts and Crafts was founded in 1906—while enjoying the luxurious, four-star accommodations of the Townsend Hotel in Birmingham. Packed with experiences made available exclusively to the Stickley Museum at Craftsman Farms, this trip is designed especially for Arts and Crafts, American art pottery, and architecture enthusiasts.
We’ll begin in Bloomfield Hills with a full-day customized tour of the Cranbrook Educational Community, founded by George Booth, a leading proponent of the American Arts and Crafts movement and a founder of the Detroit Society of Art and Crafts. Our full day tour will explore this remarkable campus described as “one of the most enchanted architectural settings in America,” and will include Cranbrook House (above), Christ Church Cranbrook, Cranbrook School for Boys, Kingswood School for Girls, the Saarinen House (interior below), and the Cranbrook Art Museum and its Collections Wing. The Collections Wing alone includes extensive collections of Pewabic and Robineau pottery, as well as work by Eames, Knoll, Saarinen and other mid-century masters.
On our second day, we’ll make a special visit to Pewabic Pottery (top), founded by the extraordinary Mary Chase Perry Stratton in 1904, the only historic pottery in Michigan and now a National Historic Landmark. We’ll experience an exclusive tour of the privately-owned former home of Mary Chase Perry Stratton. Illuminating both her work and life, this enchanting home is filled with Pewabic tiles and imbued with Mary Chase Perry Stratton’s idiosyncratic vision.
The morning of our last day, we’ll enjoy a private tour of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Smith House—which he called “My Little Gem.” Although school teachers, the Smiths were undeterred by their modest salaries and guided by a shared love of architecture. They commissioned the custom-designed home (top), which is lovingly restored today and serves as an excellent example of Wright’s Usonian ideal.
Please visit our website www.StickleyMuseum.org for full details and registration information, or call the administrative office at (973) 540.0311. As more plans are developed, we’ll be updating our website. Please stay tuned, but take note: space in this not-to-be-missed adventure is strictly limited. Make plans now to join us!