What is the Arts and Crafts movement?
A. The following answer is excerpted from the preface to The Arts and Crafts Movement by Elizabeth Cumming and Wendy Kaplan. 1991. Thames and Hudson Inc. The Arts and Crafts movement had its roots in late nineteenth-century Britain. Its leading theorists men such as William Morris, C.R. Ashbee and W.R. Lethaby had trained as architects and worked towards unity in the arts, believing that all creative endeavour was of equal value. Not only did they want to reform design but to give quality once more to the work process itself. With its division of labour, the Industrial Revolution had devalued the work of the craftsman and turned him into a mere cog on the wheel of machinery. The aim of the Arts and Crafts reformers was therefore to re-establish a harmony between architect, designer and craftsman and to bring handcraftsmanship to the production of well-designed, affordable, everyday objects. These principles were adopted in America and to a lesser extent in Continental Europe. Although
