The Home Arts and Industries Association was part of the

Arts and Crafts Movement The Arts and Crafts movement was an international trend in the decorative and fine arts that developed earliest and most fully in the British Isles and subsequently spread across the British Empire and to the rest of Europe and America. Initiat ...

in Britain. It was founded in 1884 by Eglantyne Louisa Jebb, mother of

Save the Children The Save the Children Fund, commonly known as Save the Children, is an international non-governmental organization. It was founded in the UK in 1919; its goal is to improve the lives of children worldwide. The organization raises money to imp ...

founders, Dorothy Buxton and

Eglantyne Jebb Eglantyne Jebb (25 August 1876 – 17 December 1928) was a British social reformer who founded the Save the Children organisation at the end of World War I to relieve the effects of famine in Austria-Hungary and Germany. She drafted the docu ...

and Louisa Wilkins who helped start the Women's Land Army.

History

The initial name, changed in 1885, was the "Cottage Arts Association". Jebb was inspired by an initiative of

Charles Godfrey Leland Charles Godfrey Leland (August 15, 1824 – March 20, 1903) was an American humorist and folklorist, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was educated at Princeton University and in Europe. Leland worked in journalism, travelled extensivel ...

in Philadelphia. Another leading member was the designer Mary Fraser Tytler. The organisation sought to revive traditional rural crafts which were threatened by the mechanisation of production and by increasing urbanization. In conformity with the thinking of

John Ruskin John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English polymath a writer, lecturer, art historian, art critic, draughtsman and philanthropist of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as art, architecture, Critique of politic ...

and with Arts and Crafts philosophy, supporters believed that flourishing traditional crafts helped sustain rural communities and provided workers with far more personal satisfaction than was possible for factory workers. The Association funded schools and organised marketing opportunities for craftspeople. By 1889 it had 450 classes, 1,000 teachers and 5,000 students.

Activities

The first of the Associations’ annual exhibitions took place in July 1885 and by 1888 were large enough to take place in the

Royal Albert Hall The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London, England. It has a seating capacity of 5,272. Since the hall's opening by Queen Victoria in 1871, the world's leading artists from many performance genres ...

, an annual occurrence until 1913. In 1890 the Association moved their offices to the Hall as tenants of the building and continued their work of funding schools and organising marketing opportunities for craftspeople. In 1904 the Art Workers Quarterly said the association, '…is a society for teaching the working classes

handicraft A handicraft is a traditional main sector of craft making and applies to a wide range of creative and design activities that are related to making things with one's hands and skill, including work with textiles, moldable and rigid material ...

s such as wood carving, inlaying, metal repousse, basket weaving, leather work, book binding, and for encouraging these and others such as lace, embroidery spinning, weaving, pottery etc., by means of an annual exhibition'.The Art Workers Quarterly, Vol.3, p135-138, 1904

References

External links

House Renovation
Interior design Arts organizations established in 1884 Arts and Crafts movement {{Art-org-stub

History

Activities

See also

References

External links