The Women's Guild of Arts was founded in 1907 by Arts and Crafts artists May Morris and Mary Elizabeth Turner. The organisation offered woman-identified artists an alternative to the Art Workers Guild, an artists' association founded in 1884 that excluded women and was based on the ideas of William Morris and the Arts and Crafts Movement. The first gathering of the guild was held in the studio of muralist painter Mary Sargant Florence on January 18, 1907.
The Women's Guild was established with May Morris as its First President and watercolourist and engraver Mary Annie Sloane as its Honorary Secretary. Other key initiators included Mabel Esplin, Agnes Garrett, Mary Lowndes, Marianne Stokes, Evelyn De Morgan, Georgie Gaskin, Mary J. Newill, Ethel Everett, and Letty Graham. The Guild grew to include about 60 artists.
History
Thirty-six women joined the guild in its first year, including bookbinders Katherine Adams and S.T. Prideaux; interior designer Agnes Garrett; painters Marianne Stokes, Annie Swynnerton, and Evelyn de Morgan; and muralist Mary Seton Watts. During World War One the Guild's general meetings continued, but the group shifted towards more public and philanthropic events and activities. The Guild furnished a Lady's bedroom for the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society's 11th exhibition at the Royal Academy in 1916 in London. The WGA continued until at least 1961, when Mary Annie Sloane died.
Notes
References
Elletson, Helen, May Morris, Hammersmith and the Women's Guild of Arts (pp. 141–154) in Hulse, Lynn, editor May Morris: Art & Life. New Perspectives, Friends of the William Morris Gallery, 2017 . Thomas, Zoe, Women Art Workers and the Arts and Crafts Movement, Manchester University Press, 2020 Thomas, Zoe and Garrett, Miranda, Suffrage and the Arts: Visual Culture, Politics and Enterprise, Bloomsbury, 2017 Authority Control