Art, craft and design

William Morris was the father figure of the Arts & Crafts Movement and developed its three guiding principles: honest and functional design, the use of natural forms in pattern, and the importance of creative, manual work.

He wrote that a beautiful house was, ‘the most important production of art and the thing most to be longed for’ because he believed passionately that everyday objects deserved the same concern as a painting or sculpture, and that an involvement in creative manual work, whether as a professional or an amateur, as a maker or a consumer, could improve an individual’s quality of life.

Arts & Crafts designers didn’t believe in making a complete break with tradition. They looked to the past for inspiration for the future – to English 17^th-century work, to the crafts and designs of the Italian Renaissance, of India and Japan and the Islamic world among others.

The Arts & Crafts Movement encouraged all sorts of people – including aristocratic women and professionals – to take up a craft. Education was an important element of the Movement. Setting up craft workshops and providing training in craft skills were seen as complementary. The emphasis was on learning by doing as practised by Gimson and the Barnsleys. New art schools were opened based on this hands-on Arts & Crafts philosophy, such as the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London.