Arts and Crafts movement

Arts and Crafts movement

An English room decorated by William Morris in the Arts and Crafts style.

(credit: Courtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, photograph, John Webb)

English social and aesthetic movement of the second half of the 19th century, dedicated to reestablishing the importance of craftsmanship in an era of mechanization and mass production. The name derives from the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society (1888). Inspired by John Ruskin and other writers who deplored the effects of industrialization, William Morris founded a firm of interior designers and manufacturers to produce handcrafted textiles, printed books, wallpaper, furniture, jewelry, and metalwork. The movement was criticized as elitist and impractical in an industrial society, but in the 1890s its appeal widened and spread to other countries, including the U.S. See also Art Nouveau.