Exhibition
Workshop of the World
Arts and Crafts in Philadelphia
When
Opens July 5
Where
Main Building, Morgan, Korman, and Field Galleries 150-155
About
Following the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, several local institutions were founded to promote the applied arts.
"Workshop of the World: Arts & Crafts in Philadelphia" marks the 150th anniversary year of one of these institutions, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and celebrates the creative innovations that emerged from a network of Philadelphia artists, architects, and manufacturers in response to the problems of urban industrialization in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Inspired by the ideals of the British Arts and Crafts movement, these artists sought beautify everyday life through simple designs, hand craftsmanship, and pre-industrial models.
A special feature of the Arts and Crafts in the Philadelphia region was the development of craft-based communities outside the city in Bryn Athyn, New Hope, and Rose Valley in Pennsylvania and Arden in Delaware, each of which made a distinctive contribution to the artistic and social transformations of the era. The legacy of Arts and Crafts has continually inspired Philadelphia artists up to the present, where debates about the value of the handmade, integration of art into daily life, and the importance of beauty are still with us.
A multimedia exhibition, "Workshop of the World: Arts & Crafts in Philadelphia" will feature work by well-known figures like Samuel Yellin, Violet Oakley, and Henry Chapman Mercer and also bring to life lesser-known stories of Philadelphia’s artistic and industrial heritage.
Curators
David Barquist, The H. Richard Dietrich, Jr. Curator of American Decorative Arts
Colin Fanning, the Louis C. Madeira IV Assistant Curator of European Decorative Arts
Elisabeth Agro, The Nancy M. McNeil Curator of Modern and Contemporary Craft and Decorative Arts
With: Humberto Morales-Cruz, Andrew W. Mellon Post- doctoral Fellow
Additional support provided by James Miller, Mellon Graduate Fellow, Haley Kane, Center for American Art Summer Fellow, and Erin Dowding, Center for American Art Summer Fellow
Support
This exhibition is made possible through the generous support of the Terra Foundation for American Art, the Center for American Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Katie Adams and Tony Schaeffer, Art and Debra Castelbaum, and Martha Hamilton and I. Wistar Morris III.
Funding for the catalog is provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Fund for Scholarly Publications at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Women’s Committee of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Decorative Arts Trust, and Furthermore: a program of the J. M. Kaplan Fund.
All exhibitions at the Philadelphia Museum of Art are underwritten by the Annual Exhibition Fund. Generous support is provided by Andrea Baldeck, M.D.; Julia and David Fleischner; Robert Hayes; and Mark W. Strong and Dana Strong.
Image Gallery
Crib, 1922, Frank Jeck (American, born Hungary [now Romania], 1884–1965), Glencairn Museum, Bryn Athyn, PA
Sconce, c. 1936–37, Wharton H. Esherick (American, 1887-1970), 1989-1-1f20