This article asserts the importance of evening classes as a form of craft education in England, in an era often remembered for the development of studio craft ideology and its promotion of neo-medieval forms of apprenticeship learning. Facilitated by government acts in 1889 and 1890, county councils supported vocational training, including evening classes in crafts and trades. Often reduced to a footnote in craft literature, I demonstrate how evening classes as a form of supplemental education made a vital contribution to the legacy of the Arts and Crafts Movement and the development of craft awareness within English culture and society. I start with an explanation of why studio craftspeople, like potter Bernard Leach and weaver Ethel Mairet, were so dismissive of evening classes, which they considered inferior to intensely "devotional," full-time methods of craft instruction. The rest of the article defends supplemental education by showing how evening classes both contributed to a significant pedagogic legacy and enabled skill mobility, where people trained within one discipline could become proficient in a related field. They offered an alternative educational route for those unable to access the patriarchal education system and labor market, notably women and those on low incomes. From woodwork classes in the Surrey countryside to Edward Johnston's pioneering calligraphy classes at the Central School of Arts and Crafts, the evening class is one of the most important, yet understudied, structures that shaped twentieth-century craft. © Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 2014.
Author Keywords
Index Keywords
