The Arts & Crafts Movement
Central New York: Syracuse & Environs

IAC’s 27th Annual Arts and Crafts Conference
September 17 – 21, 2025

IAC’s 27th annual Arts & Crafts Conference will take place in Central New York, an underappreciated hub of both historic and contemporary Arts & Crafts art and architecture.

In the context of Arts & Crafts, the region is perhaps best known for Gustav Stickley, furniture designer and entrepreneur, and Adelaide Alsop Robineau, ceramicist and publisher of the important journal Keramic. Both were based in Syracuse from 1901 – 1905 as was Irene Sargent, editor of Stickley’s publication, The Craftsman. The Conference will focus on these key individuals while also exploring other equally impressive Arts & Crafts practitioners and examples of their work throughout the region, including that of architect, Ward Wellington Ward.

Since 1998, IAC’s Arts & Crafts Conference has traveled to centers of the Movement across the US, among them Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Buffalo, Boston, Chicago, Pasadena, Denver, Philadelphia, and New York City. At each, we visit premier cultural institutions and sites of major architectural, cultural, and civic importance. Through lectures, site visits, studio tours and informal discussions, we explore the full scope of expressions of the Movement, including how it has informed the art and architecture that followed it. Drawing participants from across the US, the conference is attended by a committed and knowledgeable group made up of collectors, preservationists, art and architectural historians, artisans / practitioners, academics, enthusiasts, and students.

In our explorations we consider a spectrum of styles, informed by the conviction that the Movement is defined as much by its ethos, principles, and ideals, as by a specific design vocabulary, and that its multitude of expressions invariably reflects a combination of regional, geographical, and international influences. The conference also considers how relationships, local and otherwise, play a role in defining the expression, materials, and methods of fabrication germane to a specific region.

Influences of the Movement on subsequent schools, styles, or artistic approaches are also considered, as is how the Movement is reflected in contemporary culture in ways both original and nonmimetic. The role and manifestations of patronage are also key to our consideration, as is the importance of preservation and of the continuing influence of historic architecture in the contemporary urban and suburban landscapes. Finally, each Conference explores how the Arts & Crafts movement has served as a lever for social change.

Planned events at the 2025 Arts & Crafts Conference include the following:

• Visit to and tour of the Stickley Museum with commentary by Amanda Clifford, Director. The Museum provides an incisive overview of Gustav Stickley’s Craftsman furniture and his influential approach to Arts & Crafts philosophy and expression. We expect preservation architect Julia Holka Marshall to discuss the ongoing preservation of the structure, a former Stickley factory.
• Tour of the Gustav Stickley House led by preservation architect Beth Crawford with a focus on its ongoing restoration. This will serve as an ideal case study, providing the opportunity to learn from craftspeople working on the project, to understand the challenges involved and to learn about the historically appropriate practices used to overcome them.
• Visit to the Everson Museum of Art to view the significant collection of works by Adelaide Alsop Robineau, the acclaimed Syracuse-based Arts & Crafts potter and designer. With curator Garth Johnson, we’ll also view the extensive Furniture Collection and the 1903 “Jerusalem” stained-glass window designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany for the May Memorial Unitarian Church in Syracuse.
• Introduction to the collection of Ward Wellington Ward architectural drawings of Arts & Crafts-style homes in Syracuse and the Henry Keck Stained Glass Studio Collection by Bob Searing, Executive Director of the Onondaga Historical Association.
• Walking tour of downtown Syracuse led by president of the Arts and Crafts Society of Central New York, Sam Gruber with a focus on buildings designed by architect Joseph Lyman Silsbee (1848 – 1913). Silsbee mentored a generation of major American architects, most notably Frank Lloyd Wright.
• Visit to Dalton’s American Decorative Arts, an important resource for original Arts & Crafts furnishings and decorative accessories led by founder, David Rudd. Dalton’s offers carefully selected examples of original condition furniture, pottery, art, and metalwork.
• Bus tour of other architecturally significant locations and residential neighborhoods:
  • Sedgewick (Robineau Road)
  • Westcott
  • Scottholm
  • Berkeley Park
  • Strathmore
  • Oakwood Cemetery
  • Silsbee Chapel
  • Barnes Mansion

Additional visits to architecturally and culturally significant sites in Ithaca and Rochester are being planned. The Conference will also feature talks by local experts, preservationists, historians, curators, and academics.

A block of rooms has been reserved at The Courtyard and Residence Inn Syracuse Downtown at Armory Square, 300 West Fayette Street, Syracuse, New York. The hotel’s central location will facilitate easy access to downtown sites.

IAC is grateful for the generous support of the Marie and John Zimmermann Foundation and for that of Bulova, as well as the media sponsorship of American Fine Art and The Magazine Antiques (as of January 5, 2025). The Arts and Crafts Society of Central New York has worked collaboratively with IAC to develop the conference program.

IAC is grateful for the generous support of the Marie and John Zimmermann Foundation and for that of Bulova, as well as the media sponsorship of American Fine Art and The Magazine Antiques (as of January 5, 2025). The Arts and Crafts Society of Central New York has worked collaboratively with IAC to develop the conference program.