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Monday, 30 September 2019
at the Art Workers' Guild
7 pm to 9 pm
During his 1909 lecture tour to the West Coast, Past Master C. R. Ashbee presented lectures in Seattle, Washington and Portland, Oregon. Unimpressed by the crowds, pollution, and degradation he had seen in New York, Pittsburgh, and Chicago, he was fascinated and delighted with the West. Ashbee wrote in his journals that Seattle was “the only American city I have so far seen in which I would care to live. All the gold of Ophir would not tempt me to live in one of those smug eastern cities. Here is a city with a new light in her eyes.”
His wife, Janet, remarked on the city’s cosmopolitanism, its ‘well-appointed restaurants decorated with the latest Arts and Crafts distinction of line and coloring.’ Her comments reveal that Seattle and the Pacific Northwest were participating actively in the important design and reform movement that had roots in nineteenth century Britain but soon was taken to heart by America.
This lecture, based upon an award-winning book by Lawrence Kreisman and Glenn Mason, The Arts and Crafts Movement in the Pacific Northwest (Timber Press, 2007), explores this theme of regional identity. Examples in architecture, interior design, furniture, decorative and applied arts, photography, and fine arts demonstrate the remarkable variety of progressive, architect-designed residences, bungalows for everyone, and all manner of artistic and practical furnishings and accessories that were the handiwork of anonymous amateurs and significant regional artists alike.
Lawrence Kreisman, Hon. AIA Seattle, was Program Director of Historic Seattle for 20 years, He has been recognized for significant work in bringing public attention to the Pacific Northwest’s architectural heritage and its preservation through courses, tours, exhibits, lectures, articles, and 11 books. Kreisman and his husband, Dr. Wayne Dodge, are both members of the Decorative Arts Society.
To reserve your place, please email leigh@artworkersguild.org. Entry is free.