Press Release

Press release

An Arts and Crafts Summer at Compton Verney Saturday 27 June – Sunday 13 September 2015

This summer at Compton Verney Art Gallery and Park, Arts & Crafts fans have a fantastic opportunity to witness the movements’ impact on the design of the home both inside and out. Two exhibitions and a new commission by landscape designer Dan Pearson in the Park combine to create a series of multisensory encounters which enable visitors to experience original historic works and see the movements’ enduring influence on designers today.

The Arts and Crafts House: Then and Now This exhibition traces the origins, legacy and enduring appeal of the historic Arts and Crafts Movement and its fascination with the creation of the home. Through the work and ideas of John Ruskin and William Morris, the exhibition will explore how subsequent generations of designers created new ways of living and working. The exhibition will also look at the link between house and garden and how nature became a primary source of inspiration for designers. The exhibition is devised as a series of encounters between historic and contemporary works, including new commissions by Rosa Nguyen, landscape designer Dan Pearson, ceramicist Andrew Wicks and textile designers Rapture & Wright; alongside work by Stanley Anderson, C.R. Ashbee, Timorous Beasties, M.H. Baillie Scott, Sidney and Ernest Barnsley, Sebastian Cox, Michael Eden, Ernest Gimson, F.L. Griggs, Jason Ingram, Gertrude Jekyll, Norman Jewson, Edwin Lutyens, May Morris, Objects of Use, Jim Partridge and Liz Walmsley, Alfred Powell, Sir Gordon Russell, C.F.A. Voysey, Louise Powell, Philip Webb. The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated publication written by exhibition curator Antonia Harrison and Mary Greensted and is published by Compton Verney. Exhibition organised by Compton Verney. Thanks for the in-kind support from Morris & Co.. Rosa Nguyen’s new commission has been made possible thanks to support from Arts Council England.

The Hart Silversmiths: A Living Tradition This exhibition explores the evolution of a unique living tradition in design and silversmithing which has its origins in the Arts and Crafts Movement. Architect, designer and social reformer Charles Robert Ashbee (1863-1942) established The Guild of Handicraft in Whitechapel in 1888. Inspired by the anti-industrialism of John Ruskin and William Morris, Ashbee believed that good design and craftsmanship depended on good 1 For press information contact Sam Skillings T: 01926 645 541 E:[email protected] Press release

social conditions and in 1902 Ashbee, the guildsmen and their families, moved from their homes in London’s East End to the Cotswold town of Chipping Campden. Among them was silversmith George Henry Hart (1882-1973). He and three subsequent generations of the Hart family continue in the Arts and Crafts tradition to this day, producing handmade silver in the same workshop in Chipping Campden. The exhibition tells their remarkable story, bringing together historic and contemporary commissions alongside the spectacular drawings which inspired them. Exhibition organised by Compton Verney in collaboration with, and generously supported by, The University of Warwick and The Hart Silversmiths Trust. Exhibition research enabled with support from The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art and conservation with support from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

The Dan Pearson William Morris Wild Flower Meadow Landscape designer Dan Pearson has responded to the exhibition with a unique grounds commission inspired by legendary designer William Morris. Taking Morris’ Trellis wallpaper design as a starting point, Compton Verney’s West Lawn will become the site for a newly- developed wild flower meadow which will be mown and planted with an adaptation of the Trellis design. Seen from the gallery’s windows and sculpture terrace, the meadow will become a formal parterre, in contrast to the freedom of its wild flowers experienced at ground level. This commission articulates the close relationship between Arts and Crafts houses and their gardens or surroundings. It also draws us close to Morris’ deep appreciation for nature and native plants. Dan Pearson’s meadow at Compton Verney has likewise been designed with the future in mind, as it will continue to develop and diversify throughout the year and beyond. All funds for the project were raised through a successful crowdfunding campaign via the Art Fund’s Art Happens site, the UKs only crowd-funding platform for the museum sector artfund.org/arthappens For public information call +44 (0)1926 645500, visit comptonverney.org.uk, follow @comptonverney #Arts&CraftsHome

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2 For press information contact Sam Skillings T: 01926 645 541 E:[email protected] Press release

Related events and activities: Thursday 9 July, 2.30pm Talk, Tour and Tea with Antonia Harrison, the curator of The Arts and Crafts House: Then and Now Friday 7 August, 2.30pm Talk by Mary Greensted The Arts and Crafts Home Tuesday 21 July, 11.30am – Meet Artist Rosa Nguyan and find out about her new 12.30pm commission called Gardening with Morris Which is part of The Arts and Crafts House exhibition. Tuesday 21 – Friday 24 July, Family activity: In Response to William Morris 1pm – 4pm Drop-in to The Studio at Compton Verney and join members of the learning team to help to create a wallpaper allotment inspired by Rosa Nguyan and William Morris’s work.

From Tuesday 4 August the collective wallpaper installation will be hung up in the atrium for visitors to see and enjoy. Tuesday 4 August – Friday 4 Family activity: Summer Art Space September, 11am – 4.30pm Drop into The Studio and take part in activities based on the exhibition The Arts and Crafts House. Create a mini Arts and Crafts house in a shoe box. Think of your favourite room and redesign how it will look in the style of handmade objects, furniture and decoration.

Notes to editors Compton Verney - Compton Verney’s 2015 season is Saturday 14 March – Sunday 13 December 2015 - The Gallery is open Tuesday – Sunday and Bank Holiday Mondays, 11am – 5pm - Admission to the exhibitions is £15.00 Adults, £13.50 Concessions, £3.00 Children, £30.00 Family (2 adults and up to 4 children). Under 5s are free. Admission includes entry to the exhibition, the six permanent collections and 120 acres of parkland at Compton Verney. [These prices include a Gift Aid donation] - For tickets and information see www.comptonverney.org.uk or call 01926 645500 - Daily 45 minute exhibition tours take place at 12 noon and are included in admission. No advance booking. Please sign up on arrival.

3 For press information contact Sam Skillings T: 01926 645 541 E:[email protected] Press release

Image information

For high resolution copies of any of the following images, please email: [email protected]

 All credit lines are correct in accordance to agreements with lending institutions and copyright holders and must be used in full.

 All images are supplied at 300 dpi, approx. 3-4 MB and approx. 10/11cm in height or width. Please contact us if you require a larger image.

 In agreement with copyright holders all images may not be cropped, flipped or have text laid over them without prior permission.

4 For press information contact Sam Skillings T: 01926 645 541 E:[email protected] Image sheet Exhibition: The Arts & Crafts House: Then and Now Saturday 27 June – Sunday 13 September 2015

C.F.A Voysey, Design for a Nursery Chintz, The House that Jack Built, Interior of Beechanger, Sidney Barnsley's cottage at Sapperton, 1929, RIBA Library Drawings & Archives Collections Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum

Alfred Powell Punch Bowl, 1928, Glazed earthenware with Michael Eden, A Twisted Oval Wedgwoodn't Tureen, 2012, underglaze decoration, Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum Courtesy of Adrian Sassoon, London

The New Craftsmen, Brodgar Chair, 2013, Oak, straw Morris and Co, Sussex Armchair,1870, Wood and rush, Kevin Gauld and Gareth Neal © National Trust, Sophia Farley and Claire Reeves

5 For press information contact Sam Skillings T: 01926 645 541 E:[email protected] Image sheet Exhibition: The Arts & Crafts House: Then and Now Saturday 27 June – Sunday 13 September 2015

Rosa Nguyen, Gardening with Morris, 2015, CFA Voysey, Design for a wallpaper or textile showing birds among photo by Angela Moore flowers, 1916, RIBA Library Drawings & Archives Collections

May Morris 'June' Frieze with Floral designs and view of Kelmscott Helen Allingham, South Border at Munstead Wood Manor(detail) ‘William Morris Gallery, c. 1909-10, watercolour, c.1905 Garden Museum London Borough of Waltham Forest’

6 For press information contact Sam Skillings T: 01926 645 541 E:[email protected] Image sheet Exhibition: The Hart Silversmiths: A Living Tradition Saturday 27 June – Sunday 13 September 2015

Courtesy of Derby Rowing Club and Hart Silversmiths Trust

George Hart, Drawing for a chalice Julian Hart, Decanter from an original design by C.R. Ashbee, 2008 Courtesy of Hart Silversmiths Trust © The artist

7 For press information contact Sam Skillings T: 01926 645 541 E:[email protected] Image sheet Art in the Park: The Dan Pearson William Morris Wild Flower Meadow Saturday 27 June – Sunday 13 September 2015

William Morris Trellis wallpaper design, 1864 Visual of the proposed parterre at Compton Verney © Victoria and Albert Museum, London © Dan Pearson Studio.

8 For press information contact Sam Skillings T: 01926 645 541 E:[email protected]