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Arts and Crafts Schools in the 19th century until 1939

Düsseldorf, Heinrich Heine University, 2025 May 19 - 23 

When industrialization in the 19th century fundamentally changed living and production conditions, schools of arts and crafts emerged as innovative centres for art education. Initiatives for the founding of arts and crafts schools originated from the major world fairs with the aim of boosting international competition in the fields of art, crafts and design. The first being the Great Exhibition, which took place at Crystal Palace in London’s Hyde Park in 1851, followed by the Great London Exposition in 1851 and the Paris Exposition Universelle in 1867. The schools’ curricula included teaching techniques involved in, for example, ornamental and figure drawing, modeling, sculpting and decorative painting as well as special architecture classes. Around the same time arts and crafts museums were founded to promote good taste to the public, often in conjunction with close institutional ties to arts and crafts schools. Around 1900 arts and crafts schools began to focus on the connection between art, craftsmanship and technology whilst considering the interaction between material, object and space and, thus, becoming a driving force behind avant-garde movements.

The BIP - Summer School will look at the history of individual institutions in order to develop an understanding of the development of arts and crafts schools before the Bauhaus. The focus is on questions regarding the connection of arts and crafts to industry and economy, the relationship between fine and applied arts as well as the ties between arts and crafts schools and museums of applied arts and their collections. In addition, we will examine specific teaching concepts and contents of arts and crafts schools in Vienna, Prague and the Rhineland while addressing the question of women’s presence and the professionalization of female careers through arts and crafts schools. Furthermore, particular characteristics related to architecture and equipment in new buildings of arts and crafts schools will be examined, as well as the occurrence of arts and crafts artefacts in modernist literature. We will discuss the relevance of these topics for our time by looking at how the relationship between theory and practice as well as art and craftsmanship is reflected in contemporary art. City tours, visits to museums and collections will complement and enrich the programme.

University of Amsterdam