• 4th Annual Arts & Crafts Chicago show & sale

    Just got this press release in my inbox. If any of you go, please send me photographs! And remember, the Frank Lloyd Wright home & studio is in River Forest, too, so you could easily make a nice weekend out of this:

    The 4th Annual Arts and Crafts Chicago Show and Sale is coming back to
    Concordia University in River Forest on Saturday, May 30th and Sunday,
    May 31st 2009. Focusing on mission furniture and accessories of the
    American Arts and Crafts Movement (approximately 1890-1920), this show
    will truly be one you won’t want to miss. You’ll find 20th Century
    Decorative Arts including furniture, metalwork, pottery, textiles, art
    and lighting; everything from Stickley, Limbert, Roycroft, Rookwood and
    much more. Over 50 of the nations leading dealers will be on hand to
    answer questions and advise on how to decorate your home. This
    specialized event has proven to be one of the premiere antique and
    contemporary shows in the Midwest.

    Dealers attending this year’s show are coming from all across the
    country. We have dealers from Massachusetts, New York, California,
    Texas as well as the best dealers from the Midwest. JMW and Crones
    Collectibles from Massachusetts will be featuring high-end pottery from
    the Northeast such as Grueby, Saturday Evening Girls and Marblehead, as
    well as furniture and accessories. Jack Papadinis Antiques,
    Connecticut, will be showcasing some of the premiere lighting in the
    country and David Surgan from New York will offer the best Heintz
    Collection for sale in the country. Paramour Fine Arts, which
    specializes in arts and crafts era woodblocks and art, will be on hand
    showcasing some fabulous artwork from the era. Local dealers such as
    John Toomey Gallery will be exhibiting as well, highlighting Midwest
    artists such as Frank Lloyd Wright, TECO and Jarvie.

    Not only is this an antique show, but the weekend will showcase the
    highest quality contemporary craftsfirms as well. Ephraim Faience
    Pottery, Door Pottery, Arts and Crafts Hardware and Dard Hunter Studios
    will be in attendance, just to name a few.

    With the success of the show over the last three years and with the
    rich tradition of bungalows, as well as the Prairie School heritage of
    Frank Lloyd Wright, Chicago has proven to be a perfect fit for this
    specialized show.

    Homeowners interested in educating themselves as to the appropriate
    furnishings for their turn of the century bungalows and craftsman style
    homes shouldn’t miss the 4th Annual Arts and Crafts Chicago Show and
    Sale, Saturday May 30th, 2009, from 10 am – 5 pm and Sunday May 31st
    from 11 am – 4 pm at Concordia University at Geiseman Gym in River
    Forest, Illinois. Admission price is only $7 each. Free parking on site
    in a 5-level garage. No parking on Monroe.

  • news roundup, July 2007

    Several bits & pieces of interest to old-house aficionados, rehabbers and others interested in A&C:

  • Frank Lloyd Wright & the house beautiful

    From June 28 through October 8, the Portland Museum of Art is presenting a new exhibit showcasing "Frank Lloyd Wright’s passion for creating a new way of life for Americans through architecture."

    In particular, the exhibition focuses on his legendary skill in
    creating harmony between architectural structure and interior design
    while fulfilling the needs of a modern lifestyle. Featuring
    approximately 100 objects, the exhibition includes furniture,
    metalwork, textiles, drawings, and accessories from the collections of
    the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation and other public and private
    collections. Curated by Dr. Virginia T. Boyd, professor at the
    University of Wisconsin-Madison, Frank Lloyd Wright and the House
    Beautiful conveys the methods through which Wright implemented the
    philosophy of the “house beautiful.” The exhibition explores how Wright
    sought to develop a modern interior reflective of a uniquely American
    spirit of democracy and individual freedom, illustrates his development
    in integrating the space with furnishings and architectural elements,
    and shows his experiments with bringing these ideas to the homes of
    average Americans.

    Several podcasts and audio programs relating to the exhibit are also available:

  • Tokyo’s Nihon Mingeikan & Mingei’s relationship to Arts & Crafts

    Japan’s Daily Yomiuri includes an English-language edition, and a recent issue includes a short article by Robert Reed on Tokyo’s Nihon Mingeikan, a small museum celebrating Mingei crafts and the life and work of Soetsu Yanagi, the founder of the Mingei movement. Mingei is sometimes associated with the Arts & Crafts movement by art historians who note both its chronological proximity to European A&C and its similar philosophical underpinnings (the recent International Arts & Crafts show, which originated at the Victoria & Albert and was at San Francisco’s De Young Museum in the middle of 2006, included a model room based on Mingei crafts and made a strong case for that movement’s inclusion as part of the ‘International Arts & Crafts’ milieu).

    From the museum’s website:

    Located
    in Tokyo, the Mingeikan Museum is housed in a beautiful traditional
    Japanese building completed in 1936. Founded in the same year, the
    Mingeikan has over 17,000 items in its collection made by anonymous crafts people mainly from Japan, but also from China, Korea, England, Africa, and elsewhere.

    Yanagi Soetsu
    (1889-1961), the first director and founder of the Museum, coined the
    term Mingei (folk art) in 1926 to refer to common crafts that had been
    brushed aside by the industrial revolution. Yanagi and his lifelong companions,
    the potters Bernard Leach, Hamada Shoji, and Kawai Kanjiro, sought to
    counteract the desire for cheap mass-produced products by pointing to
    the works of ordinary crafts people that spoke to the spiritual and
    practical needs of life. The Mingei Movement is responsible for keeping alive many traditions.