Byrdcliffe Arts and Crafts exhibition charts development of artists' colony

"Jane Whitehead and Lily" (1905), by Eva Watson-Schütze, will be on view at the Johnson Museum as part of its "Byrdcliffe: An American Arts and Crafts Colony" exhibition Oct. 16 through Dec. 5. Courtesy of the Johnson Museum

The Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell presents "Byrdcliffe: An American Arts and Crafts Colony," which will be on view at the museum Oct. 16 through Dec. 5.

Byrdcliffe, an artists' colony near Woodstock, N.Y., that still functions today, was an important force in the Arts and Crafts movement in America and has a rich artistic and social legacy. The colony produced beautiful objects in a variety of art forms, from painted furniture to glazed ceramics and oil paintings. Of equal importance were the utopian ideals of its founders, combined with the dynamic creativity of its talented but underappreciated artists and other colorful personalities.

"The many facets of Byrdcliffe's history are compelling and relevant to 21st-century audiences, who might yearn for simpler, more centered lives," said Nancy E. Green, the exhibition's organizer and the senior curator of prints, drawings and photographs at the Johnson Museum.

The exhibition Web site, featuring resources, a teachers' center and all the works included in the exhibition, can be visited at http://www.museum.cornell.edu/byrdcliffe/.

The exhibit will feature paintings, photographs, prints, furniture, frames, textiles, metalwork and ceramics produced at Byrdcliffe from the colony's earliest days through the death of Ralph Whitehead, a founder and chief investor, in 1929. Artists include Dawson Dawson-Watson, Hermann Dudley Murphy, Zulma Steele, Edna Walker, H. Stuart Michie, Edmund Rolfe, Edward Thatcher, Bertha Thompson, Bolton Brown, Lovell Birge Harrison, Carl Eric Lindin, Jessie Tarbox Beals, Eva Watson-Schütze, Ralph Radcliffe Whitehead, Jane Whitehead, Edith Penman, Elizabeth Hardenberg, Halsey Ricardo, Helen Buttrick, Marie Little, Vivian Bevans, John Ruskin and Elliott Landy. Many of these artists will be represented by work in multiple media.

A complementary exhibition, "For the Love of Beauty: British Arts and Crafts at the Turn of the Century," also will be on view at the Johnson Museum from Oct. 16 through Dec. 19. The exhibition will highlight works that reflect the influence of the British style on American Arts and Crafts, featuring work in silver recently given to the museum by Cornell alumni Isabel '47 and William Berley '45.

A number of public events have been scheduled in conjunction with the exhibitions. On Sunday, Oct. 17, at 3 p.m., Henrietta Usherwood, scholar of British Arts and Crafts, will speak in conjunction with the exhibition "For the Love of Beauty." A traditional cream tea will be served at 4 p.m. Teachers are invited for an open house from 3 to 5 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 20, for the Byrdcliffe exhibit. An Art for Lunch program is scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 21, from noon to 1 p.m., when Green will lead a tour through the many exciting facets of the Byrdcliffe exhibition.

The Johnson Museum is open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free.