The Arts and Crafts Movement in the Cotswolds
Lecture on Monday 6th October 2025 at 2:15PM
Lecturer: Kirsty Hartsiotis
Venue: Larruperz Centre
The Cotswolds became one of the most vibrant rural centres of the Arts and Crafts Movement in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Inspired by William Morris's retreat at Kelmscott Manor, several groups of designers and makers settled in the region, from Ernest Gimson and the Barnsley brothers, to C R Ashbee and his Guild of Handicraft, and designers and artists drawn south from the Birmingham School of Art.
They were followed by friends and admirers to create a region-wide craft community that lasts to this day.
This talk explores their work, and their impact on the architecture, art and life of the area, looking at all areas of craft from country houses to churches to utopian communities.
Kirsty Hartsiotis was the curator of the decorative and fine art at The Wilson Art Gallery and Museum, Cheltenham from 2008 to 2023. She is currently a curator at Swindon Museums, where she also worked prior to 2008. At Cheltenham she looked after the Designated Arts and Crafts Movement collection, which includes the important private press archive, the Emery Walker Library. She’s curated many exhibitions on the Arts and Crafts and Private Press Movements, including Crafting Change and Ernest Gimson: Observation, Imagination & Making.
Her most recent exhibition is A Very British Art Revolution at Swindon, and she's currently working on a touring exhibition about British studio pottery. Passionate about sharing her deep love for and knowledge of the arts, she’s also a freelance researcher, currently researching Arts and Crafts war memorials and the work of Arts and Crafts designers in churches in the South West. She’s also been an oral storyteller for over 20 years, and has published a number of collections of stories. She is a regular columnist for Cotswold Life, writes for diverse other publications on art history and folklore, and was the newsletter editor for the Society of Decorative Art Collections.