Author: Emma Welty

Publisher:

Published: 2017-04-01

Total Pages: 60

ISBN-13: 9780983880431

The three Nichols sisters, Rose, Marian and Margaret, came of age during a critical time in American craft history: the Arts and Crafts movement, active from 1880ー1910. Following the Industrial Revolution and widespread abandonment of cottage industries, champions of the Arts and Crafts movement, William Morris and John Ruskin, were calling for a return to handcrafts for the sake of beauty, quality and social progress. The values maintained and taught by members of the Arts and Crafts movement impacted the educations, careers and politics of the Nichols sisters.The Nichols sisters were instructed in handcrafts from a young age. Letters, memoirs and objects in the museum's collection tell the story of their work, including sewing, pottery and carpentry. The three Nichols sisters were not simply object makers. They also utilized their skills to educate and advocate for people from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds.This exhibition aims to harness the same spirit of making and community engagement in order to re-activate the spaces the Nichols family occupied. Four local artists were selected by a jury to create site specific works for the rooms of the Nichols House Museum. The artists utilized traditional techniques and materials that would have been familiar to the Nichols sisters. The framework of the exhibition contextualizes the voices of the four art makers within the history of the Nichols family in order to expand our interpretation to include contemporary thought.