Design for Living: Arts and Crafts in Carlisle Day of Talks

A day of talks to celebrate the Barn Close exhibition from Dr Esmé Whittaker, Raymond Whittaker and Tony Peart. Barn Close and the Evolution of the Arts and Crafts House Join Dr Esmé Whittaker to learn more about the architecture and interiors of Barn Close. This talk will examine the house and furnishings in the context of both the national and local Arts and Crafts movement while also demonstrating what makes it unique. Built according to Arts and Crafts principles, using local materials and decorative details by leading craftsmen, Barn Close evolved to reflect the multi-layered taste of its owners. Through creative collaboration, this house was shaped by the latest design trends as well as the history and culture of Carlisle. Barn Close – A Very Personal History In this personal talk Raymond will look back over 70 years and recall how Barn Close has been an ever-present thread woven into his life. The talk will explore his career as an architect, his passion for Arts and Crafts architecture and how Barn Close has often been on the edge of his experience and then at times in full focus. It will describe how his friendship with the inheritors of the Barn Close collection and the skills and experience of his curator daughter came together and how this eventually led him to initiate the listing of this important building. It is, indeed, a very personal history of his involvement with Barn Close. Raymond Whittaker MA Dip Arch (Cantab) RIBA is a native of Carlisle and decided. at an exceedingly early age, that he would become an architect. He studied architecture at Cambridge University before returning to Carlisle where he was a founding partner of Architects Plus. He served on the governing body of Cumbria College of Art and Design and has been a member of the Carlisle Diocesan Advisory Committee for many years. He plays an active role in the conservation of the unique and unusual St Mary’s Church in Wreay. Edwin, Maud and the D.I.A.: a Cautionary Guide to Carlisle Edwin Scott-Nicholson was an early member of the Design and Industries Association (D.I.A.), an organisation dedicated to applying the ideals of the flagging Arts and Crafts movement to an age of mechanised production. Under the slogan ‘Fitness for Purpose’, it sought to raise the standard of British industrial design. Dr Tony Peart will explore how the ideals of this campaigning group not only influenced the furnishing of Barn Close, but, through its ‘A Cautionary Guide’ series—including a volume devoted to Carlisle—also sought to expose, shame and campaign against the visual pollution and commercial disfigurement of British towns and countryside. Tickets: £38, £35 for Friends (includes lunch)