During mid-October Initiatives in Art and Culture hosted its 26th annual Arts & Crafts Conference in Pennsylvania’s Brandywine River Valley. Held in a different location each year, the immersive, multi-day “fieldtrip”-style conference focuses on a region’s unique contributions and expressions within the broader context of the countrywide American arts and crafts movement. 

Lisa Koenigsberg, founder and president of Initiatives in Art and Culture pictured with Nina Foster, daughter of American painter Harold Weston and, from left to right, conference attendees Terry Borton, Cheryl Boots, Shane Qualls, Lisa Koenigsberg, Nina Foster and Jim Huenniger.

 

This year’s event focused on the Philadelphia area and how the movement (which originated in Britain around 1880 before sweeping rapidly across the United States) manifested itself in planned communities such as Rose Valley and the Studio Craft Movement. In relation to the latter, there was a particular focus on the work and legacy of Wharton Esherick (1887-1970) and George Nakashima (1905-1990), a famed woodworker, architect and furniture maker considered one of the fathers of the American craft movement. One of the outings included a trip to the Brandywine Museum of Art for the opening of a major Esherick exhibition.

“As has been our practice since the first Arts & Crafts Conference, we privileged the artistic and philosophical underpinnings of the movement and how it informed the art and architecture that followed,” explains Initiatives in Art and Culture founder and president Lisa Koenigsberg. “Key to this consideration are the commonalities in ethos and approach among different practitioners and how the movement continues, reflected in contemporary culture in ways both original and nonmimetic. Influences of the movement on subsequent schools, styles, or artistic approaches—the rural modern, for example—were also considered. The conference also underscored the importance of preservation and of the continuing influence of historic architecture in the contemporary urban and suburban landscapes.” 

Conference participants on the terrace of Moravian Tileworks during a private tour.

 

A highlight for many of this year’s attendees was a visit to George Nakashima Woodworkers, a philosophically and ethically-informed furniture company formed in 1945, and still operational under the founder’s daughter, Mira Nakashima. Gary Norvell and his wife, of Takoma Park, Maryland, have attended the past four Arts & Craft Conferences. “It is exactly the kind of conference that interests me, the period of Art Deco and those periods before,” says Norvell. “That’s why I keep coming back. We call it a conference, but tour is a better word because you are always out seeing something. You just can’t always see what we saw or get access to what the group does.” 

Attendees on a tour of George Nakashima Woodworkers in New Hope, Pennsylvania. 

 

Norvell continues, “I should mention that there is a comradery among the participants. You see mostly the same people and you make friends, and everyone has the same interests, and people in the group always know something about what you are seeing. You learn from each other.”  

Marianne McPherson traveled from Santa Barbara, California, for the conference. A big fan of Initiatives in Art and Culture’s meticulously curated events, she has attended seven Arts & Crafts conferences and five of the organization’s other banner event, the American Art Conference.  “My favorite thing is getting to go to after-hour or private events they are not generally open to the public,” says McPherson. She particular enjoyed a trip to painter Harold Weston’s daughter’s home and seeing her father’s original artwork. 

Conference attendees during a private tour of the inside of Wharton Esherick’s home. 

 

There were also guided visits to N.C. Wyeth’s home and studio, and the studio of Andrew Wyeth; private tours of the Louis Kahn’s house for Margaret Esherick, and Robert Venturi’s house for his mother, Vanna Venturi, walking tours through Arden Village and Rose Valley, and exclusive visits to the Harold Weston Foundation. There were also private visits to Washington Memorial Chapel and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Beth Sholom Synagogue, as well as the Michener Art Museum and Moravian Tileworks. 

The October 2025 Arts & Crafts Conference will explore the movement in Syracuse and Central New York State. Visit www.artinitiatives.com for information on this and other Initiatives in Arts and Culture events. —

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