Hello to WMSC Members and Friends
The Roycroft Campus at 39 South Grove Street
East Aurora, NY 14052 (30 km SE of Buffalo)
announces a special event on September 13 and 14, 2019
celebrating the life of John Ruskin, 200 years after his birth
JOHN RUSKIN and the BEGINNING of the ARTS & CRAFTS MOVEMENT
( -- Please note this conference is NOT a WMSC event -- )
There is no fee to attend the program of this Ruskin/Roycroft event
which is co-sponsored by the
North American Chapter of the Guild of St George
and the Roycroft Print Shop.
Overnight accommodation, meals, etc.
are at your own arrangement and expense.
Below are details about the program and registration.
The Guild of St George and The Roycroft Print Shop would like to invite you to our
celebration of John Ruskin’s 200 th birthday on September 13-14, 2019. It is much more
than a birthday celebration, however. We are gathering together the resources of the
Guild and Roycroft, and offering to our new century, as both organizations did at the
beginning of the 20th Century, a way to proceed. We would like you to be part of this
celebration, and also part of great things we plan for the future. Hear about the workings
of the Guild in England. Hear about Roycroft and how it works every day to strengthen
the Arts and Crafts Movement in America. Hear about and tour the Roycroft Print Shop,
the only print and graphic arts organization in the world devoted exclusively to the work
of the Arts and Crafts Movement.
The program, FOR WHICH THERE IS NO CHARGE, will open at 630pm on Friday night,
September 13th , with refreshments, a reception and a keynote address by Dr. James
Spates. Dr. Spates, who was a Professor of Sociology at Hobart and William Smith
Colleges for many years, is a world-renowned speaker and advocate of the ideas of John
Ruskin. Earlier this year, he gave a similar talk at the annual Arts and Crafts Conference in
Asheville, North Carolina. If you missed that lecture, you can now hear a similar
presentation. If you heard it, you will now be able to speak with Dr. Spates and ask you
own questions.
On Saturday, starting at 9am, you will hear a very interesting variety of presentations.
Peter Potter, a Roycroft Renaissance Artisan in Photography, will introduce you to his Arts
and Crafts Photography. This is important since, as some of you know, John Ruskin was an
avid photographer at a time when this field was first developing and allowing people to
record nature and the important works of man exactly the way they existed. Paul
Dawson, a very active member of the Guild of St George in the UK, will be giving an
important lecture on the work of George Allen, who was John Ruskin’s personal
publisher, and about William Morris who established the Kelmscott Press, and their
pioneering work in the Private Press Movement. This will be a unique lecture in the fields
of printing and publishing and the material covered may not be readily available
anywhere in the US. Professor Kay Walter will tell us how she is teaching and promoting
the work of John Ruskin today in rural Arkansas. You will be introduced to the workings of
the Roycroft Print Shop and see how we use some of yesterday’s techniques to get our
messages out today. There will then be a panel discussion, with audience participation,
where you can ask questions and state you own ideas for our Arts and Crafts Movement
of the future.
The North American Branch of the Guild of St George
and The Roycroft Print Shop
Please print the REGISTRATION FORM here.
See the FULL PROGRAM here.
