What Would Mrs. Webb Do? A Founder's Vision
The Museum of Arts and Design celebrates the enduring legacy of its founder Aileen Osborn Webb with What Would Mrs. Webb Do? A Founder鈥檚 Vision, an exhibition highlighting Webb's advocacy and dedication to skilled makers across America, and featuring objects drawn largely from the Museum's permanent collection.
As a patron and philanthropist, Webb pioneered an understanding of craftsmanship and the handmade as a creative driving force behind art and design. The first half of the exhibition features work by American makers from the 1950s to the late 1960s whose practice directly benefitted from the support of Webb and others who shared her vision, while highlighting the many crafts-related institutions that Webb launched, such as the American Craft Council, the School of American Craftsmen, and the World Crafts Council that still form a vital support structure for today鈥檚 world of makers. What Would Mrs. Webb Do? also surveys the museum鈥檚 achievements under her direction with a focus on the landmark exhibition Objects: USA, which opened in 1969 and traveled to thirty museums in the USA and abroad.
The second half of the exhibition features the stakeholders and supporters who carry Mrs. Webb鈥檚 vision forward to the present day, like advocate and philanthropist Nanette L. Laitman who has promoted the Museum鈥檚 mission in countless ways while also providing support for the recording of 235 oral histories of American craftsmen by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, excerpts of which are highlighted in the exhibition alongside key examples of these craftsmen鈥檚 works of art. Some of the Museum鈥檚 most recent and celebrated acquisitions on view also underscore the role played by the Windgate Foundation in shaping the current discourse on contemporary craft through its support of makers and non-profit institutions 鈥搕he Museum of Arts and Design among them.
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The Museum of Arts and Design celebrates the enduring legacy of its founder Aileen Osborn Webb with What Would Mrs. Webb Do? A Founder鈥檚 Vision, an exhibition highlighting Webb's advocacy and dedication to skilled makers across America, and featuring objects drawn largely from the Museum's permanent collection.
As a patron and philanthropist, Webb pioneered an understanding of craftsmanship and the handmade as a creative driving force behind art and design. The first half of the exhibition features work by American makers from the 1950s to the late 1960s whose practice directly benefitted from the support of Webb and others who shared her vision, while highlighting the many crafts-related institutions that Webb launched, such as the American Craft Council, the School of American Craftsmen, and the World Crafts Council that still form a vital support structure for today鈥檚 world of makers. What Would Mrs. Webb Do? also surveys the museum鈥檚 achievements under her direction with a focus on the landmark exhibition Objects: USA, which opened in 1969 and traveled to thirty museums in the USA and abroad.
The second half of the exhibition features the stakeholders and supporters who carry Mrs. Webb鈥檚 vision forward to the present day, like advocate and philanthropist Nanette L. Laitman who has promoted the Museum鈥檚 mission in countless ways while also providing support for the recording of 235 oral histories of American craftsmen by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, excerpts of which are highlighted in the exhibition alongside key examples of these craftsmen鈥檚 works of art. Some of the Museum鈥檚 most recent and celebrated acquisitions on view also underscore the role played by the Windgate Foundation in shaping the current discourse on contemporary craft through its support of makers and non-profit institutions 鈥搕he Museum of Arts and Design among them.
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