#2 Arts & Crafts
The Arts & Crafts movement in Britain showed the tension between the agricultural past and industrial present. It developed throughout the 19th century as a backlash to the industrialisation of art and design, championing handcrafts and imagery inspired by the natural world, as well as folk art and medieval methods and symbolism. While some key voices in the movement such as William Morris railed against factory-made products, others such as Lewis Foreman Day were happy to create designs for industrial use, believing they should be affordable to all. The Arts & Crafts textiles in the Gawthorpe collection show that inspiration was also drawn from design from around the world.