The Society of Arts and Crafts of NSW is a guild of artists in

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

established in 1906. It could be the oldest Australian craft organisation. The society continues as Craft NSW.

History

The society was founded by six practicing craftspeople in

Mosman Mosman is a suburb on the Lower North Shore region of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Mosman is located 8 kilometres north-east of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative centre for the local governm ...

in 1906. The Danish emigrant woodcarver Susanne Vilhelmine Gether soon joined and, by the December, meetings were being held in Gether's studio. In 1907 there was an Exhibition of Women's Work which had been organised by the Governor General's wife, Lady Northcote. Gether designed a dining set with six chairs for the exhibition. It was carved from

rosewood Rosewood is any of a number of richly hued hardwoods, often brownish with darker veining, but found in other colours. It is hard, tough, strong, and dense. True rosewoods come from trees of the genus '' Dalbergia'', but other woods are often ca ...

by the Society's members and over 60 pupils. The dining set was sent to London where it shown as part of the

Franco-British Exhibition The Franco-British Exhibition was a large public fair held in London between 14 May and 31 October 1908. It was the first in the series of the White City Exhibitions. The exhibition attracted 8 million visitors and celebrated the Entente Cordial ...

in 1908 as part of what became known as " White City". The Society held its own first exhibition in 1907 and annually into the 1930s, with exhibitions of metalwork, jewellery, pottery,

china painting China painting, or porcelain painting, is the decoration of glazed porcelain objects, such as plates, bowls, vases or statues. The body of the object may be hard-paste porcelain, developed in China in the 7th or 8th century, or soft-paste porce ...

, weaving, embroidery and

pokerwork Pyrography or pyrogravure is the free handed art of decorating wood or other materials with burn marks resulting from the controlled application of a heated object such as a poker. It is also known as pokerwork or wood burning. The term means ...

. Gether resigned from the society when she discovered that there were lots of new members but they were people interested in crafts not practicing craftspeople. A campaign was launched to recapture the leadership and Gether rejoined, briefly, to be vice-president in 1910. In 1974 the society established itself in the Sydney suburb of The Rocks. In 2023 the group continues as "Craft NSW" run by craftspeople. The society may be the oldest Australian craft organisation.

Works

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Society of Arts and Crafts of NSW Organisations based in New South Wales 1906 establishments in Australia Organizations established in 1906