11th Annual Arts and Crafts Conference

Enduring Legacies:
The Arts and Crafts Movement in Seattle and Environs

September 23 – 27, 2009

Lectures at Museum of History & Industry, Seattle Art Museum, Frye Art Museum, Bellevue Arts Museum and on tour.

An opportunity to register for September 23 and 24 only is available
To register on-line go to www.acteva.com/go/Seattle

Single-day registrations available by contacting IAC
646-485-1952 or info@artinitiatives.com

This conference is dedicated to and celebrates the life of Henry Fuldner (1946 – 2009).

  

“Enduring Legacies” is hosted by the Museum of History and Industry, the Seattle Art Museum, the Frye Art Museum, and the Bellevue Arts Museum, with the participation of Historic Seattle. The 11th annual Arts and Crafts conference focuses on the region’s indigenous architectural tradition, the influence of Japan and Native American art, as well as the continuity in the region between Modernism and the Arts and Crafts Movement (the work of architect Lionel Pries and some of his students, especially Paul Kirk and Roland Terry) and the flourishing contemporary craft tradition. Lectures are complemented by walking tours (e.g., Pioneer Square, First Hill), site visits (e.g., Stimson–Green Mansion, Leary House, Ferry residence, Seattle Asian Art Museum, The Highlands, Beaux Arts Village) exhibition viewings (The Arts & Crafts Movement in the Pacific Northwest, the Bellevue Arts Museum), and receptions at the Sorrento Hotel, the Traver Gallery, Facèré, and the Bellevue Arts Museum, often complemented by viewings.

Employing a cross-disciplinary approach that rejects the notion of a single “Arts and Crafts style,” and looking instead at the repertoire of diverse styles and sources upon which the Movement drew, this conference asserts that Seattle was a major West Coast center of the Arts and Crafts Movement in the United States, and that the Arts and Crafts

Movement played a critical role in the emergence of Modernism regionally and as a precursor to the strong studio craft tradition that continues to flourish today. In the past, the prevailing focus on California tended to obscure the importance of Seattle and the region, an oversight that recent scholarship – as exemplified by the book and exhibition The Arts and Crafts Movement in the Pacific Northwest – has begun to address. Additionally, the fragmentary or taxonomic approach to fine and decorative arts, and a predilection to privilege Seattle’s contemporary glass above other types of artistic expression in the region have masked the diversity and magnitude of Seattle’s accomplishments. Seeking to redress that imbalance, this conference considers contributions by Seattle and the Pacific Northwest to architecture and the visual arts in a variety of media, inspired by sources ranging from Japonisme and Native American Art to the Wiener Werkstätte and the British Arts and Crafts movement.

Among speakers are: Richard Guy Wilson, Commonwealth Professor of Architectural History, University of Virginia; Lawrence Kreisman, co-author with G. Mason of The Arts and Crafts Movement in the Pacific Northwest and co-curator of the accompanying exhibition; David Martin, co-owner of Martin–Zambito Fine Art and art historian focusing on Seattle and the Pacific Northwest; John Marshall, master silversmith and professor emeritus, University of Washington, Seattle; Michael Monroe, Director of Curatorial Affairs, Bellevue Arts Museum; Jeffery Karl Ochsner, professor, University of Washington, Seattle, and a leading authority on American architects Henry Hobson Richardson and Lionel Pries and on Seattle architecture; Barbara Brotherton, Curator of Native American Art, Seattle Art Museum; Ken Tadashi Oshima, professor University of Washington and an authority on Japanese influence; David C. Streatfield, professor University of Washington, Seattle and a garden and landscape historian with numerous publications including California Gardens: Creating A New Eden; David F. Martin, independent art historian and curator focusing on the art of Seattle and the Pacific Northwest and of Western New York State, and co-owner of Martin–Zambito Fine Art in Seattle; Thomas Wake, collector and researcher of metalwork of Albert Berry; Harriet Edquist, Professor of Architectural History, RMIT University of Melbourne and author of Pioneers of Modernism: The Arts and Crafts Movement in Australia; Christine Carr, independent architectural historian and architect; Erin Doherty, architect; for the past 17 years, she has been working in historic preservation and new construction in Central New York, Ohio, and Washington State; William Traver, founder Traver Gallery, which for over 30 years has served as a theater for the visual arts; and Stewart Wurtz, studio furniture maker, and Guest Lecturer, Furniture Studio, School of Architecture University of Washington. The conference is organized by Lisa Koenigsberg, founder and president, Initiatives in Art & Culture, who originated the series of annual Arts and Crafts conferences in 1999. 

We gratefully acknowledge the participation of Historic Seattle, the Beaux Arts Village community, Facèré Jewelry Art Gallery, Traver Gallery and the support of Mr. and Mrs. John H. Bryan, Barbara Fuldner, Harvey and Ellen Knell, The Roy Nutt Trust, David Rago, Kristine A. Steensma, the Sorrento Hotel, Style 1900, The Arts & Crafts Press, The Exeter Group, and The Gamble House. Anonymous donors have also contributed to this effort.

An attractively-priced block of rooms has been reserved at the Sorrento, a historic 1908 hotel, which has been beautifully restored and refurbished; the rate is in effect through September 1, 2009

Illustrations (from top of page): Albert Berry, Repoussé Copper Picture Frame; Collection, Thomas H. Wake. Photo: Barry Wong. John Marshall, Yale Bowl, 2001, Silver, mokume gane (.925 silver and copper), and acrylic, repouseed and chased. The Yale University Art Gallery, Purchased with gifts from Lisa Koenigsberg, MA 1981, MPhil 1984, PhD 1987, and David L. Becker, BA 1979, and Archer Huntington, BA 1897, in memory of his mother Arabella D. Huntington, (by exchange); and with the Janet and Simeon Braguin Fund, 2003.78.1.  WACO tile no. 205, 4 x 4 in., c. 1925. Collection of Ron Endlich, Tile Antiques (Seattle). Photo: Barry Wong. Jud Yoho, Craftsman Bungalows 1913 edition. Photo courtesy, Jeffrey K. Ochsner. K. K. Cutter, Stimson–Green Mansion (originally Stimson Mansion), detail, 1901; Photo courtesy, Jeffery K. Ochsner.

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