Did you think everything gets quiet here when winter comes and we are only open on weekends?  You’d be surprised! Yes, of course we are still open for group tours and scout programs — but the Log House has been bustling with activity all week.  Volunteers are busily decorating for our annual Holiday Open House, taking place on the first two weekends in December.   During this event, the Log House will be decked out for the holidays in period style and with a focus on Stickley’s own ideas.  Utilizing holiday greens, pinecones, and the home’s forest palette, the decorations will bring nature indoors and spotlight the Arts and Crafts movement’s emphasis on finding beauty in simplicity and in simple materials.

For Stickley, a rich family life was a key part of his Arts and Crafts ideas, and this event addresses his values by providing a peek into Christmas preparations that would have been typical for a family like the Stickleys, including blending Victorian traditions — like making treat-bearing cornucopia and giving handmade gifts–with more modern trends. One vignette imagines Mrs. Stickley preparing to wrap a kimono, a fashionable gift–as was anything related to Japanese culture–for ladies at the time. The Christmas tree itself is a blend of Victorian and modern times, as it is wrapped with a short string of electric lights, which were the latest thing and quite expensive, but in a nod to custom, the tree also includes candles, which were traditional and still the most popular method for lighting a Christmas tree.

While celebrating the holidays, the Holiday Open House is also meant to provide respite during a hectic time of the year. On the porch of the Log House visitors will be invited to relax and enjoy hot cider and cookies, perhaps take a minute to work on a jigsaw puzzle or send holiday greeting to a friend.

 Join us for the Holiday Open House December 3-4 and 10-11 from 11 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Or come for a sneak peek at the holiday décor during our annual trunk show, which opens at 11 a.m. on Black Friday, November 25.

What’s Behind the Closed Doors? is a post from The Stickley Museum At Craftsman Farms

What great news! Saturday’s gala raised over $100,000 for the day-to-day operations of the Stickley Museum at Craftsman Farms. Many thanks to photographer Mike Peters for these gala images of some of the wonderful people who made that success possible.

Catch the Spark Gala: Oh What a Night! is a post from The Stickley Museum At Craftsman Farms

View of North Cottage interior

In addition to enjoying the lovely brunch, you will have the opportunity to mingle with other like minded-souls who appreciate the simple beauty of the Craftsman bungalow style.  Wander through at your own pace exploring one of the first structures built at Craftsman Farms.  Enjoy the charming furnishings, including the Wiley collection.  This grouping of nine period pieces was donated by Stephen Wiley in 2009 and includes Stickley settle #208, Stickley Morris chair #369; Stickley stool #300; Stickley library table #615; Stickley bookcase #718; two Stickley 1/2 v-back arm chairs #354; an L&JG table #599; and an L&JG table #558.

View of North Cottage interior

The cottage has recently undergone an interior refurbishment as well as a complete restoration of the red slate roof, copper gutters and downspouts, rafter tails, and reinstallation of the original Ludowici roof ridge tiles.  Fundraising is now underway to restore the original windows, which are currently stored for their protection. 

Due to the need to protect the cottage from wear and tear, only a limited number of tickets are available.

Purchase tickets here:

Non-Members $35.00 Members $25.00

A Unique Opportunity: Brunch in the North Cottage! is a post from The Stickley Museum At Craftsman Farms

L & J G Stickley's Corporate Historian Mike Danial

L. & J. G. Stickley’s corporate historian, Mike Danial, will speak at our Forging Ahead Forum on October 15.  Using turn-of-the-century marketing strategies, sales techniques and advertising campaigns as a springboard for discussion, Mike will consider Arts and Crafts as a business from the Stickley brothers to today.

Mike’s firsthand knowledge of his topic is extensive.  He began his career at the L. & J. G. Stickley Furniture Co. in 1974.  In his 37 years at Stickley, he has seen the company grow from 26 employees in 1974 to approximately 1500 employees today.  Mike’s great-uncle, Vinchenzo Mellache worked for Leopold Stickley in the 1940′s-1959.  Mike has worked in every department including Rough Mill, Fine Mill, Sanding, Cabinet Room, and Finishing Department.  He even managed the Customer Service Department. In 1988 he became the project director of the Mission Oak Collection which now accounts for approximately 70% of company sales.   

Today, Mike serves as Stickley’s corporate historian and travels throughout the country lecturing on Stickley Furniture and the American Arts and Crafts movement.  He is also the restoration specialist for the firm’s corporate museum.  When not lecturing, Mike is the author of “Ask Sadie!” the Stickley Answer Desk for the corporate level learning and information systems  He holds a degree in Business Management from New Hampshire College and a degree in Wood Technology from SUNY Morrisville.

The Forging Ahead Forum is a full-day symposium taking place as part of Catch the Spark Weekend, October 15 and 16.

Mike Danial to Present “Marketing the Arts & Crafts of Stickley” is a post from The Stickley Museum At Craftsman Farms

Thank you to Bruce Johnson for featuring our annual Craftsman Farms Banquet in today’s post on his new site, arts and crafts collector.   If you haven’t already been to this wonderful new website, you are missing an outstanding and entertaining resource covering every aspect of the Arts and Crafts lifestyle.

Arts And Crafts Collector is a post from The Stickley Museum At Craftsman Farms

PreservationNJ just ran a poll asking for favorite New Jersey historical destinations, and the results are in!

The people of the Garden State have spoken – at 217 votes (as of midnight last night, when the poll officially closed) the Wildwoods, with outstanding boardwalks, thrilling amusements, and one of the world’s  most intact collections of mid-twentieth century resort architecture, is New Jersey’s favorite heritage tourism destination!While the Wildwoods’  217 votes undoubtedly won the contest, other nominees also garnered significant support. The Hereford Inlet Lighthouse, a restored historic landmark in North Wildwood, came in second with 134 votes, while the Stickley Museum at Craftsman Farms in Parsippany and the Cadwalader Heights Historic District in Trenton each ended up with close to 50 votes. The Alice Paul Institute in Mount Laurel was our fifth place nominee, garnering 27 votes.

Had we known about it earlier, we would have rushed over to their site and stuffed the ballot box with votes for Craftsman Farms!

Via Wildwoods-by-the-sea is New Jersey’s favorite heritage tourism destination! « PreserveNJ

Top New Jersey Heritage Destinations is a post from The Stickley Museum At Craftsman Farms

A staged reading at the Grolier Club, New York

Wednesday, 19 November, 6 p.m.

The first American performance of Virginia Woolf’s comedy, Freshwater, will be held on Wednesday November 19th in New York’s Grolier Club. The play, a hilarious send-up of Woolf’s great-aunt, the famed photographer Julia Margaret Cameron, and her friends poet Alfred Tennyson, painter G. F. Watts, and actress Ellen Terry, was written for a private Bloomsbury theatrical party in 1931. It is being presented in conjunction with the Grolier Club’s exhibition, This Perpetual Fight: Love and Loss in Virginia Woolf’s Intimate Circle (17 September–22 November 2008).

This staged reading is sponsored by the William Morris Society in the United States, the Grolier Club, American Friends of Arts and Crafts in Chipping Campden, the Stickley Museum at Craftsman Farms, and the Victorian Society in America.

Arthur Giron, the director, is a playwright and former head of the Graduate Playwriting Program at Carnegie Mellon University. A founding member of Ensemble Studio Theatre, the nation’s foremost play development organization, Giron had been called “One of our best contemporary dramatists” by critic Rosette La Mont. His latest play Emilie’s Voltaire won the Galileo Prize and will open in New York in 2009. The cast includes Liza Vann as Julia Margaret Cameron. A recipient of the Clarence Ross Fellowship from the American Theatre Wing, she has performed extensively in regional theatre. Her latest work is Good Ol’ Girls, which airs on PBS later this year.

Tickets: $12 reduced rate for members of the Stickley Museum and other sponsoring organizations, $18 for all others, may be purchased from the William Morris Society in the United States, either online at www.morrissociety.org.

Seating is limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis. A reception will follow the performance.

For more information: (302) 831-3250.

Location: The Grolier Club is at 47 East 60th St., New York, www.grolierclub.org.

More information on this performance can be found on The William Morris Society’s blog.

Virginia Woolf's Freshwater is a post from The Stickley Museum At Craftsman Farms

Our friend David Rago recently wrote about American Arts & Crafts and five places to see Arts & Crafts collections. He says:

The Arts and Crafts movement had a short lifespan, but its impact on American life has endured — remember that lumpy bowl you made in summer camp? Lasting only from about 1900 until changing tastes and World War I put an end to it, Arts and Crafts rebelled against the machinery of the Industrial Revolution by championing originality and simplicity in handcrafted art and design objects.

Because the movement was so brief, relatively little material was made during that time, and much of that was lost or destroyed in the ensuing decades. Fortunately, a handful of institutions across the United States understood both the social and aesthetic importance of the best work of that era and amassed meaningful collections.

Read on ARTINFO.com!

David Rago on American Arts&Crafts is a post from The Stickley Museum At Craftsman Farms