Early-bird registration!

Detroit and Environs

IAC’s 25th Annual Arts & Crafts Conference
September 27 – October 1, 2023

The 2023 Conference will travel to Detroit to examine the central role the City played in the American Arts & Crafts Movement. Over the course of 5 days, we will explore the following:

  • The Detroit Society of Arts and Crafts (DSAC) and its founding in 1907
  • The Scarab Club (founded 1907 as the Hopkins Club) and other institutions closely tied to the furtherance of the Movement in the City
  • The cultural life in Detroit at the turn of the century including forces leading to the founding of the Detroit Institute of Arts
  • George Booth’s founding of Cranbrook Educational Community based on William Morris’ philosophy that all the arts should have equal recognition
  • Women who played major roles in the expression of the Movement in Detroit, including Mary Chase Perry Stratton, co-founder of Pewabic Pottery, Katherine McEwen, a British artist who was instrumental in the administration of the DSAC upon her emigration to Detroit, and May Morris, William Morris’s daughter who had a personal and business relationship with George Booth and his wife.
  • Additionally, we will consider the relationship between Detroit architects and those whose national footprints (such as Cass Gilbert) create links between the cities in which they worked.
Early-bird registration!

For updates on the program, please complete the following form: