The team of volunteers from the Arden Craft Shop museum got to do a special tour of Workshop of the World: Arts and Crafts in Philadelphia.
It was a delight to see our objects in conversation with other Arden items from other organizations and other mid-Atlantic arts and crafts materials!
Through October 11, 2026, “Workshop of the World: Arts & Crafts in Philadelphia” marks the 150th anniversary year of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and celebrates the creative innovations that emerged from a network of Philadelphia artists, architects, and manufacturers in response to the problems of urban industrialization in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Inspired by the ideals of the British Arts and Crafts movement, these artists sought to beautify everyday life through simple designs, hand craftsmanship, and pre-industrial models.
A special feature of the Arts and Crafts in the Philadelphia region was the development of craft-based communities outside the city in Bryn Athyn, New Hope, and Rose Valley in Pennsylvania and Arden in Delaware, each of which made a distinctive contribution to the artistic and social transformations of the era. The legacy of Arts and Crafts has continually inspired Philadelphia artists up to the present, where debates about the value of the handmade, integration of art into daily life, and the importance of beauty are still with us.
