ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Imagine being part of a museum as it begins. That’s how it happened for Andrea Morgan, the Director of Operations at the Museum of the American Arts and Crafts Movement in St. Petersburg, Florida.
The Clearwater native traveled through half a dozen states before her studies and career landed her teaching Tampa Bay residents about decorative art.
“So the Arts and Crafts Movement comes at the rise of the Industrial Revolution as an answer to not only factory made mass-produced objects, but also as an answer to highly ornate Victorian objects,” Morgan said.
It was to be simplified designs inspired by nature and one-of-a-kind objects — functional as well as beautiful.
“And so you can see that they have been used, whether it’s some staining on the top of a table or on top of the sideboard over here,” said Morgan. “And that really just shows that these pieces had a life before they came here with us.”
Morgan says her return to town is framed by the continuing rise of the arts in St. Pete.
“And to be part of this museum, which really is one of a kind. We are the only museum in the world dedicated to the American Arts and Crafts movement,” said Morgan. “So to be part of that, I think is really special.”
Nearly 1,000 works are on display to honor this turn of the 20th Century American movement.
Virginia Johnson
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