Introductory description

This course will introduce students to the history, traditions, and forms of craft and popular arts in Britain from the industrial revolution to the current day. It will familiarise students to debates about hierarchies between different Arts, and encourage students to deploy art historical methods of visual analysis on more everyday objects and cultural practices. The first half of the course will look at various influences on the way everyday objects have been made and conceptualised, from the Arts and Crafts Movement to the way folk art has been used to help construct a sociology of the past. The second half will look at a number of material practices, and show how they often allowed otherwise marginalised groups to express themselves.

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Folk Art
The Arts & Crafts Movement & revivalism
Industrial Design
Collecting and Collectors
Popular art and social history
Ceramics
Textiles
Lettering and advertising
Vernacular architecture

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Demonstrate an awareness of the principal genres of craft and popular art
• Discuss critically the tensions between High Art and Craft
• Explain how everyday objects and artworks can help us understand aspects of social historyy
• Situate popular artworks within their historical, social and political contexts
• Present an argument, initiate and sustain group discussion through intelligent questioning and debate at an appropriate level
• Ability to undertake research and to write up the results in the form of a well-structured argument at an appropriate level
• Familiarity with essential ICT skills
• Ability to collaborate effectively with others
• Show understanding of diverse viewpoints
• Ability to find, select, organise and synthesize evidence
• Ability for formulate a sustained argument
• Think conceptually and independently at an appropriate level
• Sophisticated visual analysis
• Bibliographical skills at an appropriate level
• Critical analysis of cultural artefacts in their context
• bring art historical methods into the analysis of everyday life
• analyse and discuss a variety of images, objects, and social practices

Indicative reading list

Adamson, Glenn. The craft reader. Berg, 2010
Harrod, Tanya, The crafts in Britain in the 20th century. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1999
Greenhalgh, Paul. Ceramic, Art and Civilisation. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2020
Albers, Anni, et al. On weaving: new expanded edition. Princeton University Press, 2017
Gray, Nicolette. "A History of Lettering. Phaidon." (1986)
Hall, Stuart, and Paddy Whannel. The popular arts. Duke University Press, 2018
Stansky, Peter. Redesigning the world: William Morris, the 1880s, and the arts and crafts. Princeton (NJ): Princeton university press, 1985
Lambert, Margaret, and Enid Marx. English Popular Art. BT Batsford, 1951
Sennet, Richard, The Craftsman, 2016
Parker, Rozsika. "The Subversive Stitch Embroidery and the Making of the Feminine." (1984)
A Companion to Textile Culture (2020)
David Pye. The nature and art of workmanship. Vol. 4. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1968
Lethaby, William Richard. Philip Webb and his work. Raven Oak Press, 1979
Harrod, Tanya, Craft (Documents in Contemporary Art). Whitechapel Gallery, 2018

Subject specific skills

• Demonstrate an awareness of the principal genres of craft and popular art
• Discuss critically the tensions between High Art and Craft
• Explain how everyday objects and artworks can help us understand aspects of social history
• Situate popular artworks within their historical, social and political contexts
• Demonstrate sophisticated visual analysis
• Demonstrate critical analysis of cultural artefacts in their context

Transferable skills

• present an argument, initiate and sustain group discussion through intelligent questioning and debate at an appropriate level
• ability to undertake research and to write up the results in the form of a well-structured argument at an appropriate level
• familiarity with essential ICT skills
• ability to collaborate effectively with others
• show understanding of diverse viewpoints
• ability to find, select, organize and synthesize evidence
• ability to formulate a sustained argument
• think conceptually and independently at an appropriate level
• Demonstrate bibliographical skills at an appropriate level