The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) is pleased to announce Workshop of the World: Arts and Crafts in Philadelphia, a landmark exhibition exploring the regions distinctive contributions to the Arts and Crafts movement in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as well as its enduring influence upon contemporary makers. A highlight of PMAs 150th anniversary year, the exhibition will reveal how industrial Philadelphia shaped the achievements of artists, designers, and manufacturers following the Centennial Exhibition of 1876, through more than 250 objects, including ceramics, furniture, metalwork, textiles, and stained glass as well as paintings, drawings, and printed works. Workshop of the World will reveal how American handcraftsmanship and industry, typically seen as opposing methods of production, were in fact closely intertwined. It will also address how local makers responded to the Arts and Crafts movements idealistic drive to improve the quality of manufactured goods and the possibilities of artistic living. The Centennial Exhibition galvanized local support for design reform and education, resulting in the foundation of the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art in 1876 (now PMA and the former University of the Arts). Workshop of the World will spotlight the school as an incubator for Arts and Crafts principles, presenting the work of artists who studied and taught at the school, including Samuel Yellin, best known for his intricate ironwork. Yellins wrought iron will be shown alongside objects whose makers followed the same ideals of handcraftsmanship and the honest treatment of materials, including earthenware tiles by Henry Chapman Mercers Moravian Pottery & Tile Works, oak furniture by Edward Maene, and stained-glass designs by Violet Oakley. For generations, makers in the Philadelphia region have sought to mobilize the decorative arts in the service of recovering values of craftsmanship, artistic harmony, and cultural cohesion, said Daniel Weiss, the George D. Widener Director and CEO of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Workshop of the World will demonstrate the unique role that this city played, and continues to play, as a center of innovation and global capital of craft. While many Arts and Crafts practitioners worked in large workshops and contributed to architectural commissions across the city, others found refuge in utopian rural communities outside Philadelphia. These communities included Bryn Athyn, where specialized workshops for medieval-inspired stained glass, woodwork, and forged metalwork were organized, and Rose Valley, a community founded on British artist William Morriss belief that urban environments were antithetical to art making. Works produced in these small-scale artisan workshops will offer insight into how these communities fostered creativity as an essential part of daily life, from Donald Stephens oak and wrought iron sideboard (ca. 1915) to Frank Jecks cherry wood crib (1922) and Bible cabinet (ca. 1926). As the city dealt with the impacts of World War I, craft ideals evolved in the face of rapid modernization. Highlights from this period will include documents of Americas Sesquicentennial Exposition of 1926, an event that underscored national tensions between industry and tradition, and Wharton Eshericks geometric Radio and Phonograph Cabinet (1936-37), a forward-looking design made by hand yet intended to house technologies that were potent symbols of modernity. The exhibitions final section will explore the work of contemporary artists, demonstrating how Philadelphia continues to be an international craft capital. Ceramics by Syd Carpenter and Roberto Lugo, fiber art by Ted Hallman, and a stained-glass work by Judith Schaechter, among others, will show how modern sensibilities and personal convictions are applied to traditional methods and how contemporary makers have expanded and mined the core principles of Arts and Crafts revival, survival, and reformation. We are excited to present the first museum exhibition to feature Philadelphias creative contributions to the Arts and Crafts movement in the United States, said David Barquist, the H. Richard Dietrich, Jr., curator of American Decorative Arts. A special aspect of Arts and Crafts in this region was the number of communities established outside the city with handcraft production as a primary goal. This exhibition is made possible through the generous support of the Center for American Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Terra Foundation for American Art, The Cotswold Foundation, Katie Adams and Tony Schaeffer, and an anonymous donor. Funding for the catalog is provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Fund for Scholarly Publications at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Womens Committee of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Center for American Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Decorative Arts Trust, and Furthermore: a program of the J. M. Kaplan Fund. All exhibitions at the Philadelphia Museum of Art are underwritten by the Annual Exhibition Fund. Generous support is provided by Andrea Baldeck, M.D.; Julia and David Fleischner; Robert Hayes; and Mark W. Strong and Dana Strong. The special exhibit will run from July 5 to Oct. 18 in the Morgan, Korman, and Field Galleries (150 to 155). To learn more, visit www.philamuseum.org.