The Museum of the American Arts and Crafts Movement

     Yay! It's open --- finally! St. Petersburg Florida continues on its trajectory of becoming a world class city of museums with the opening of the Museum of the American Arts and Crafts Movement  ( https://www.museumaacm.org/about.html ), the only museum in America dedicated to the architectural and artistic Arts and Crafts Movement during the period 1890 to 1930.  After years of delay, the museum finally opened on September 7, 2021, and it is a very worthy addition to a city that already boasts The Dali, the James Museum of Western Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, and the Florida Holocaust Museum, just to name a few.

    Like the James and the Dali, the MAACM started as a collector and philanthropist's private collection.  In this case, Rudy Ciccarello created the Two Red Roses Foundation and oversaw the design and construction of the Museum to exhibit some 2,000 objects that are a part of the Foundation's collection.

 "Ciccarello, along with Alfonso Architects, designed and oversaw the incredible task of creating the Museum of the American Arts and Crafts Movement in St. Petersburg, Florida. The five-story, 137,000 square-foot museum is a work of art itself, with incredible architectural elements such as a grand atrium, skylights, and a dramatic spiral staircase—all adorned with period art, light fixtures, windows, fireplaces, and more. MAACM features more than 40,000 square feet of gallery space, as well as a destination restaurant with private dining rooms, a retail store, an upscale café, a children’s gallery, a reference library, a theater, a graphic studio, a beautiful event space for weddings and corporate events, and an outdoor green space enhanced by original period tiles and fountains." (About the museum: Museum of the American Arts & Crafts Movement. About the Museum | Museum of the American Arts & Crafts Movement. (n.d.). Retrieved September 12, 2021, from https://www.museumaacm.org/about.html.)

    The architecture is stunning. Shapes, construction materials, and construction methods clearly reflect the contents of the museum, relying heavily on the use of wood and ceramics or pottery. Each floor is devoted to a different medium, for example, lighting on one floor, tile and pottery on one floor, furniture and architectural elements on another, etc. There are also a couple of galleries of photographs of the period, including several by well known photographers Alfred Stieglitz and Edward S. Curtis, and a gallery of children's books illustrations. Interspersed throughout the museum are a few rooms, taken from grand houses and re-created for visitors to enjoy. Even visitors who are not experts on the movement may recognize famous names, like Newcomb and Rookwood in pottery, Stickley in furniture, Tiffany in lighting, and Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright in architecture. 

    It's hard to pick a favorite gallery; I enjoyed them all, especially the pottery and lighting. However, my favorite peace in the whole museum is not even Arts and Crafts Movement, strictly speaking. It's the Arlyn table, created in 1988 by George Nakashima, from a redwood slab. Nakishma had developed his woodworking skills while incarcerated in a Japanese-American internment camp as a boy.

    A couple of months ago, we were among the museum members given sneak preview tours of the museum. Of course, we had to promise not to talk about the preview, and we were not allowed to take photos. I have to admit that, after the tour, I kind of doubted whether the museum would be a thriving one; I wondered if people would make return visits. A few months later, I've changed my mind. There were quite a few visitors on Saturday, and they all seemed very interested, and I overheard snatches of really lively conversations. The MAACM is a worthy addition to St. Petersburg's museum life, and I think it will find its audience.

 

 

Welcome to the Fairgrounds

         Say "St. Petersburg, Florida", and you are likely to picture lots of retirees and lots of tourists on some of the best beaches in the world, but there's much more to the city. St. Petersburg is rapidly becoming a city of world-class museums, authors, and artists. A few weeks ago, a group of local artists opened a new attraction called Fairgrounds ( https://fairgrounds.art/ ), located in the heart of the Warehouse Arts District. It's billed as "an arts destination where everyone is invited to explore an immersive world of playful art and technology exhibits based on original Florida stories."  Contributing artists were asked to create interactive and immersive art works in a 15,000 square feet space that capture the history and culture of Florida, celebrating the weird and wild that makes Florida Florida, their works commenting on the truth and the mythology that make Florida unique.

    The organizers plan to make Fairgrounds a year-round arts center, with changing exhibitions and classes and workshops offered. I found the art installations interesting and engaging, but I probably spent less than an half hour inside, which makes the admission price a little steep (adults $27 or $25, children $22), so I'm not sure about how many repeat visits will be made. These are just a few of the pictures I took. You might be able to tell that my favorite room contained fish tanks transformed into dioramas.