About Arts 310 - “Craft and the Machine”

Background

The Arts and Crafts Movement in England began as a social, political, and artistic backlash to industrialization.  In 1851 Queen Victoria and Prince Albert hosted the Great Exhibition in London’s Crystal Palace (a glass and steel structure designed by architect Joseph Paxton).  William Morris and John Ruskin, among others, were horrified by England’s demonstration of excess.  Ruskin wrote:

“… how much of [England] do you seriously intend within the next fifty years to be coal-pit, brick-field, or quarry?”

From this point Morris and Ruskin began their campaign for worker’s rights and greater emphasis on quality in production and narrowing the distinction between fine art and craft.

Arts 310

“Craft and the Machine” is an immersion into the social, political, and artistic movement which focused on human rights, worker’s and women’s rights as well as questions of beauty, creativity, and authority in the visual arts.

These same issues are important to us today.  We will take an in-depth look at architecture, textiles, pottery, printing presses, glass and metal and how the production of these fit into the movement in England and the U.S.  There are several hands-on assignments so that the students can gain a true understanding of making something with their own hands.  Finally, the semester ends with a study of WWI and its impact on the Arts and Crafts Movement, how it changed with the Bauhaus, and eventually landed in our own backyard:  Black Mountain College.