Speakers Announced for 22nd National
Grove Park Inn Arts & Crafts Conference

What began twenty-two years ago with thirty Arts & Crafts antiques dealers, two craftsmen and 300 attendees has since blossomed into the premier Arts & Crafts event of the year, one which is expected to draw more than 3000 collectors of Arts & Crafts furniture, art pottery, metalware, textiles, books and art to the historic Grove Park Inn Resort & Spa overlooking Asheville, North Carolina on February 20-22.
    

“In the beginning,” organizer and Arts & Crafts author Bruce Johnson recalls, “I practically had to beg speakers and exhibitors to come to the Grove Park Inn. Now I’ve got a problem I never dreamed of having:  more great exhibitors than I have space for and more great speakers than I have time at the podium.”
    

A former teacher, Johnson has always kept one goal clearly in focus:  create the most enjoyable three-day educational experience any Arts & Crafts collector could imagine. “In the classroom, you have to both entertain and educate,” he observed, “and building a memorable conference is no different.”
    

This year Johnson has culled another great team of seminar topics and speakers, including authors Jill Thomas-Clark and husband Michael Clark on “The Stickley Legacy:  From Gustav and Leopold to Albert, John and Charles.”  Style 1900 publisher and “Antiques Roadshow” expert David Rago will delight the crowd with his seminar, simply entitled “My Three Favorite Art Potteries.”  Collectors Doug McFarland and David Kornacki are teaming up to present their research into “The Roycroft Copper Shop:  1906-1938,” while nationally known speaker Cheryl Robertson delves into one of her favorite characters “Frank Lloyd Wright: Prairie School Architecture and Furnishings.”  Looking further east, author Brian Coleman has entitled his talk “Across the Pond:  American Interpretations of British Arts & Crafts Icons.” Finally, on Sunday morning, attendees will listen to author Nancy Green explore “Woodblock Prints:  The ‘Art’ in Arts & Crafts” and to curator Ann Chaves on “Textiles of the Arts & Crafts Movement.”
    

Each afternoon attendees will have the opportunity to shop the booths of more than 130 exhibitors, including fifty of the country’s most respected Arts & Crafts antiques dealers, fifty of the finest artists and artisans working in the Arts & Crafts style, and thirty magazine editors, book sellers, publishers, non-profit organizations and Arts & Crafts sites, including the Gamble House, the Roycroft Campus and Gustav Stickley’s Craftsman Farms.
    

In addition, the weekend will include optional house tours presented by the Asheville Preservation Society, a reception, exhibit and talk at the Asheville Art Museum entitled Mapping the Mountains: The Photography of George Masa (1881-1933), walking tours through the sprawling 1913 Grove Park Inn, more than thirty Small Group Discussions on interior decorating, furnishing, remodeling and constructing Arts & Crafts homes, and workshops on landscape design, color schemes, stenciling, embroidery, tile and pottery decorating and furniture finishing.
    

“The secret to the success of this conference,” Johnson confided, “is the knowledge and energy and enthusiasm that the collectors share with each other while they’re in a Small Group Discussion, a workshop or just relaxing in front of one of the fireplaces in the Great Hall.”
    

Information on registration, lodging and transportation, plus a detailed hour-by-hour agenda, can be found at Arts-CraftsConference.com or by calling Bruce Johnson at (828) 628-1915.