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Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society

Created to give decorative arts the same public standing as painting and sculpture, this London society became a key force behind the British Arts and Crafts movement. Its exhibitions helped bring handmade design, craftsmanship, and artistic collaboration into the spotlight.

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Arts and Crafts Essays

Arts and Crafts Essays

by Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society

About the author

Founded in London in 1887, the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society was set up to promote decorative arts alongside fine arts at a time when craft was often treated as secondary. It grew out of the ideas behind the wider Arts and Crafts movement, which valued skilled making, honest materials, and thoughtful design.

The society’s exhibitions at the New Gallery beginning in 1888 were especially influential. They brought together work across furniture, textiles, metalwork, ceramics, and other applied arts, helping the public see these fields as serious artistic practice rather than mere manufacture.

Walter Crane served as its founding president, and William Morris later led the society as well. Over the years, the group became an important showcase for the makers and ideals of British Arts and Crafts before eventually merging with the Cambridgeshire Guild of Craftsmen in 1960.