Carmel Arts and Crafts Club

Last updated
Carmel Arts and Crafts Club
Successor Carmel Art Association
Formation1905;120 years ago (1905)
FounderElsie Allen
Founded at Carmel-by-the-Sea
Dissolved1927
Type Art Gallery, Club
PurposeTo attract artists to Carmel
Location
Coordinates 36°33′19″N121°55′24″W / 36.55528°N 121.92333°W / 36.55528; -121.92333
Region served
Monterey County, California
ServicesPerformances, poetry readings, lectures, and summer school

The Carmel Arts and Crafts Club was an art gallery and theatre club founded in 1905, which soon built a clubhouse where artists and actors attracted to the arts colony village of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, gathered. The club exhibited and taught art and produced performances at Forest Theater and the Golden Bough Playhouse. By 1927, the Carmel Art Association replaced the club as the center of art in Carmel, and in 1929, Edward G. Kuster purchased the club's theatrical operations.

Contents

Early history

In 1905, to foster the arts in the village of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, the Carmel Arts and Crafts Club was formed, by Elsie Allen, a former art instructor for Wellesley College.. After the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the village received an influx of artists and other creative people escaping the disaster area. Jack London describes the artists' colony in a portion of his novel, The Valley of the Moon . The early Carmel bohemians participated in events held at the club, including writers and poets Mary Austin, George Sterling, Robinson Jeffers and Sinclair Lewis. [1]

In 1907, the Carmel Development Company provided the club with their first building on Casanova Street. Their first art exhibit was held in this temporary building. [2] Foster formed a committee to raise money to build a permanent site for a clubhouse. It raised money by holding a "Dutch Market" with booths to sell goods and food at the park across the Hotel Carmelo. Those in charge of the booths were George Sterling's wife, Sydney J. Yard's wife, Michael J. Murphy's wife, and others. Sinclair Lewis acted as master of ceremonies. By July 1907, a lot and the clubhouse building costing $2,500 was completed on Monte Verde Street south of Eighth Avenue. [3] [4] Every summer Jennie V. Cannon travelled to the Monterey Peninsula, and in 1907 purchased real estate in Carmel, where she joined the art colony, participated in its birth and development, and exhibited at the Carmel Arts and Crafts Club. [5]

Harold Sutton Palmer spoke at the club in March 1907 as well as musical selections by Mabel Gray Lachmund, Peral Tuttle, Sallie Ehrmann, and a reading by Fanny M. Yard, wife of watercolor artist Sydney J. Yard. [6] Other early events included the Café-chantant and bazar to raise funds to pay for an art exhibition held at the clubhouse; [7] entertainment for the Manzanita Club, which included music and dancing followed by dinner and speeches. [8] On July 16, 1908, the first annual breakfast of the club was held at the clubhouse. George Sterling was toastmaster for thirty-two members of the club. Mary E. Hand was introduced as president of the club, [9] which she held for sixteen years.

Cypress Trees by Mary DeNeale Morgan. Art in California - a survey of American art with special reference to Californian painting, sculpture and architecture past and present, particularly as those arts were represented at the (14782418564).jpg
Cypress Trees by Mary DeNeale Morgan.

On September 24, 1911, the Club put on the play The Land of Heart's Desire, produced by Herbert Heron, at the Forest Theater amphitheater in Carmel. [10] From July 4-5th 1916, the Club presented The Piper, by Josephine Preston Peabody at the Forest Theater. [11] Four Carmel artists acted and painted scenery: Arthur Honywood Vachell, Mary DeNeale Morgan, William F. Ritschel, and Laura W. Maxwell. [12] The dramas presented at the Arts and Crafts Club attracted considerable attention by 1914, with an article in The Clubwoman noting, "Probably no other women's club in the country has achieved a more remarkable success in the way of dramatic ventures than has The Carmel Club of Arts and Crafts". [1] An article in The Mercury Herald commented, "a fever of activity seems to have seized the community and each newcomer is immediately inoculated and begins with great enthusiasm to do something ... with plays, studios and studies". [1] The success of its productions allowed the club to buy the Forest Theater and the land from the Carmel Development Company in 1925. [13]

Arts and Crafts Summer School of Art

Carmel Summer School of Art. Carmel-by-the-Sea Arts and Crafts Summer School.jpg
Carmel Summer School of Art.

By 1913, the Club had begun organizing lessons for aspiring painters, actors and craftsmen. [14] American painters, such as William Merritt Chase, Xavier Martinez, Mary DeNeale Morgan and C. Chapel Judson offered six weeks of instruction for $15. [1] From July through September 1914 William Merritt Chase taught his last summer class, his largest with over one hundred pupils, at the Summer School of Art. [4]

By September 1927, the Carmel Art Association replaced the Summer School of Art and became the center of the art community on the Monterey Peninsula. [15] [16]

Arts and Crafts Hall and last years

In 1923–1924 the club built a new theater, the Carmel Arts and Crafts Hall, on an adjacent lot on Monte Verde Street, Carmel. [17] In 1928, the Abalone League , a local amateur baseball club and active thespian group, bought the Arts and Crafts Hall from the Carmel Arts and Crafts Club and renamed it the Abalone Theatre. The proceeds were used to pay off the Forest Theater's debts. [18] [17] [19] [3]

In 1929, after returning from a European trip, Edward G. Kuster was approached by the Abalone League which, beset by financial trouble, offered to sell Kuster its theatre operations, including the Arts and Crafts Theatre – an offer that Kuster accepted. Kuster remodeled the facility and renamed it the Studio Theatre of the Golden Bough. Having shut down his Golden Bough Theatre on Monte Verde Street, he moved all of his concerts, plays, lectures and other events there. [20] [21]

The Club continued to own the Forest Theater property, but this accumulated debt. The theater needed repairs, and in 1937 the Club deeded the property to the City of Carmel-by-the-Sea, which obtained WPA funds for major renovations. [22] [23]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-08. Retrieved 2014-01-07.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  2. ↑ "When the Carmel 'Bohemians' met The Ladies of The Arts & Crafts Club" (PDF). The Salinas Californian. 2005-12-24. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-08.
  3. 1 2 Hale, Sharron Lee (1941). A Tribute to Yesterday: The history of Carmel, Carmel Valley, Big Sur, Point Lobos, Carmelite Monastery, and Los Burros. Santa Cruz, Calif.: Valley Publishers. pp. 30–31. ISBN   9780913548738 . Retrieved 2022-03-07.{{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
  4. 1 2 Gray, Eunice T. (Feb 1915). "The Chase School Of Art At Carmel-By-The-Sea, California". Art and Progress. 6 (4): 118–120. JSTOR   20561363.
  5. ↑ Kovinick, Phil; et al. (1999). An Encyclopedia of Women Artists of the American West. Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press. pp. 39–40. ISBN   9780292790636.
  6. ↑ "Society Gossip". Oakland Tribune. Oakland, California. 10 Mar 1907. p. 17. Retrieved 2022-03-11.
  7. ↑ "Café Cantan At Carmel Will Be Free". Monterey Daily Cypress and Monterey American. Monterey, California. 21 Jun 1907. p. 1. Retrieved 2022-03-11.
  8. ↑ "News From Carmel". Monterey Daily Cypress and Monterey American. Monterey, California. 10 Mar 1908. p. 1. Retrieved 2022-03-11.
  9. ↑ "News From Carmel. Arts and Crafts Club Serves a Swell Breakfast". Monterey Daily Cypress and Monterey American. Monterey, California. 17 Jul 1908. p. 1. Retrieved 2022-03-11.
  10. ↑ "Fairy Play in Forest Theater. The Land of Heart's Desire Is Given by the Carmel Club". The San Francisco Call. San Francisco, California. 24 Sep 1911. p. 18. Retrieved 2022-03-12.
  11. ↑ "Finish Rehearsals For Carmel Plays". Monterey Daily Cypress and Monterey American. Monterey, California. 28 Jun 1916. p. 4. Retrieved 2022-03-14.
  12. ↑ "Two Plays to Have Premier at Fair Carmel-by-the-Sea". San Francisco Chronicle. San Francisco, California. 25 Jun 1916. p. 21. Retrieved 2022-03-14.
  13. ↑ Cf. Letter to Palmer, June 1963.
  14. ↑ Hudson, Monica. Carmel-By-the-Sea, Arcadia Publishing, 2006
  15. ↑ "Theater For Children at Carmel Plan. Arts and Crafts Club to Turn Over Auditorium for Youngsters' Benefit". Oakland Tribune. Oakland, California. 15 Sep 1927. p. 7. Retrieved 2022-03-11.
  16. ↑ Edwards, Robert W. (2012). Jennie V. Cannon: The Untold History of the Carmel and Berkeley Art Colonies, Vol. 1 (PDF). Oakland, Calif.: East Bay Heritage Project. p. 39. ISBN   9781467545679.
  17. 1 2 Temple, Sydney (1987). Carmel By-The-Sea: From Aborigines to Coastal Commission. Angel Press. pp. 137–154. ISBN   0-912216-32-8.
  18. ↑ Hal Garrott (1928-12-14). "A Profane History Of Carmel". Carmel Pine Cone. Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. p. 6. Retrieved 2022-10-14.
  19. ↑ "real Estate Transfers". The Californian. Salinas, California. 14 April 1928. p. 3. Retrieved 2022-03-11.
  20. ↑ "Back Again, Intriguing history of Carmel's Golden Bough Theatre", Alta Vista Magazine/Monterey County Herald, August 28, 1994
  21. ↑ "Golden Bough Theatre (290 Seats)". Pacific Repertory Theatre. Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. Retrieved 2023-07-16.
  22. ↑ Carmel City Council resolution 671, April 15, 1937
  23. ↑ "Historic Context Statement: Carmel-by-the-Sea" (PDF). ci.carmel.ca.us/. The City of Carmel-by-the-Sea. 9 September 2008. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
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