The Arts & Crafts Movement: The Original CREATIVE INTERCHANGE
In the late 1800’s the British Arts & Crafts Movement was at the height of its fame and a group of men and women were busy rewriting the rule books of design and architecture. They wanted to make every day objects beautiful and left an impact on design we still feel today.
But make no mistake, this was about so much more than pretty wallpaper and embroidered cushions. These artists, architects and political thinkers were starting a revolution! Inspired by art critic John Ruskin and socialist designer William Morris they hated the drudgery and ugliness of the industrial age. Like us, they wanted to turn the clock back to an age where a craft worker’s skills were valued. Their principles - not just for design, but for life - were joy in work, sharing knowledge and making beauty accessible to all. From the 1880s to the 1920s they spread their radical message across Europe: that art could end social inequality.
Here at CREATIVE INTERCHANGE we are all about celebrating the past and finding out what we can learn from these visionaries. To do so we have created the Arts & Crafts Movement series featuring a myriad of workshops highlighting traditional crafts!
Though products like baskets, brooms and spoons can be easily mass-produced today, there is immense value in ensuring the traditional handmade crafting skills behind them are not lost to time. Practices like basket weaving, broom making and spoon carving represent connections to our past and to the ingenuity of our ancestors who crafted necessary household items from available natural materials.
When these enduring crafts are kept alive through interest and practice, we maintain a tangible link to traditional methods and materials. Future generations can still experience the rustic beauty and humble utility of these handcrafted items made using techniques hardly changed over centuries. They allow us to literally grasp a piece of living history.
By sustaining beautiful ancient crafts, we honor tradition while inspiring future artisans. The heritage deserves protecting, even as culture continuously evolves over time. If we lose touch with where we came from, it becomes harder to appreciate how far we’ve come. The simple broom for example, while modest, grounds us in our past.
There is also merit in preserving the craft knowledge itself, the intricate techniques passed down within families and communities. Each craftsperson has unique nuances woven into their creations. As crafts like weaving and carving are endangered by industrialization, these sparks of human creativity, diversity, and place-based knowledge are at risk of fading away. The crafts live on through those still passionate to learn and practice them.
Keep an eye on our workshop calendar or sign up for our newsletter below to delve into the past with us.
Picture featuring “Bearded Morris’, by Karina Sharpe.
