Describe the Arts and Crafts Movement, identifying its goals and characterizing aspects of its style

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Answer: The ideal answer should include:
1. It is a movement that reacted to the increase of mass production and lowering of quality in nineteenth-century Britain.
2. Artists such as William Morris dedicated themselves to the renewal of design through renewal of medieval craft traditions. In these traditions, products were handmade, and workers were tied from start to finish to the design and creation of their products.
3. Simplicity and utility were valued principles.
4. Works were produced for everyday use and in a great variety of media: furniture, book illustration, wallpaper, painted tiles, and others. A purpose of the movement, as Morris stated, was to create designs that would elevate the circumstances of the common man, although ultimately these handmade works could be too expensive for the common man to buy.