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Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society
Created in London in 1887, this influential society helped put decorative arts and craftsmanship on equal footing with painting and sculpture. Its exhibitions became a key showcase for the British Arts and Crafts movement at the end of the 19th century.
1 Audiobook
Arts and Crafts Essays by Members of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society
by Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society
About the author
Founded to champion the artistic value of design and handcraft, the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society brought together makers, designers, and reform-minded artists who believed everyday objects deserved the same serious attention as fine art. Its first president was Walter Crane, and William Morris later took on the role, linking the society closely with some of the best-known figures of the movement.
The society began exhibiting at the New Gallery in London in 1888. Those shows helped raise the profile of ceramics, textiles, furniture, metalwork, and other decorative arts at a time when industrial production was changing how objects were made and judged. The exhibitions were especially important in shaping public understanding of the British Arts and Crafts movement before the First World War.
The group’s legacy lasted well beyond its early exhibitions. It published Arts and Crafts Essays in 1893, and in 1960 it merged into what became the Society of Designer Craftsmen, showing how its original mission continued to influence British craft culture for decades.