Museum of the American Arts and Crafts Movement

Museum of the American Arts and Crafts Movement (MAACM) is a 137,000-square-foot museum under development in St. Petersburg, Florida.[1] Designed by Alfonso Architects, the museum is five stories and will feature a grand atrium, skylights, a spiral staircase, more than 40,000 square feet of gallery space, a library, theater, graphic studio, and park.[1][2][3][4][5] The Two Red Roses Foundation, endowed by art collector, businessman and philanthropist Rodolfo (Rudy) Ciccarello is funding the Museum, which will display the Foundation's collection of fine and decorative arts of the Arts and Crafts Movement period.The building is reported to cost at least $90 million.[1]

History

The Foundation's collection was developed by Rudy Ciccarello. Ciccarello first intended to build the museum in cooperation with the city of Tampa on a site across from the Tampa Museum of Art at the edge of Curtis Hixon Park.[6] That deal fell apart in 2012 when Ciccarello and the city were unable to agree on financial terms, and Ciccarello decided to construct the museum without government assistace.[6] Dewey Blanton of the American Alliance of Museums remarked on the rarity of museums on this scale being built in the United States "these days."[6]

Ciccarello, who founded a successful pharmaceutical distribution business, says that he first became interested in the Arts and Crafts movement when he saw a cabinetmaker crafting a bookcase copied from one designed by Gustav Stickley, and decided to buy the original.[6] He has been collecting since the early 1990s, purchasing "pottery, metalwork, lighting, tile, built-ins such as fireplaces, even entire rooms, tiled walls and all," in addition to the furniture that first caught his eye.[6] More recently, he began to collect photographers of the early 20th century Pictorialist movement, and the Photo-Secession movement, including Alfred Stieglitz.[6]

Kevin W. Tucker, the former Margot B. Perot Senior Curator of Decorative Arts and Design with the Dallas Museum of Art was appointed Director of the MAACM in August 2015.[7] Ciccarello dissolved the Director position in December 2015.

Collection

The collection includes work by Gustav Stickley, Charles Rohlfs, Frank Lloyd Wright, the artists of Byrdcliffe Colony, Greene and Greene, Dirk van Erp, Roycroft, William Grueby, Newcomb Pottery, and Arthur Wesley Dow.[2] Images and descriptions of some of the work to be displayed in the museum can be found on the website of the Two Red Roses Foundation.

Kent Lydecker, director of the Museum of Fine Arts (St. Petersburg, Florida), describes the Ciccarello collection as, "one of the most important collections of American Arts and Crafts, in all media, in private hands."[6]

References
  1. Moore, Waveny Ann (15 December 2017). "St. Petersburg's Museum of the American Arts and Crafts Movement set to be complete in 2019". Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved 9 January 2018.
  2. "Construction Begins on $40 Million Museum of the American Arts & Crafts in Florida". ARTFIX Daily. 18 February 2015. Retrieved 3 March 2015.
  3. Cruz, Jose Luis Gabriel (21 December 2013). "Alfonso Architects Selected to Design Museum of American Arts and Crafts". ArchDaily. Retrieved 3 March 2015.
  4. "Museum of the American Arts and Crafts Movement, Florida by Alfonso Architects". architecture lab. 17 January 2014. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 3 March 2015.
  5. Bennett, Lennie (12 March 2015). "St. Petersburg's arts and crafts museum begins parking deck". Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved 1 April 2015.
  6. Bennett, Lennie (27 June 2014). "Plans unfold for huge art museum in downtown St. Petersburg". Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved 1 April 2015.
  7. "Kevin W. Tucker Appointed Director of the Museum of the American Arts and Crafts Movement". ArtFix Daily. 27 July 2015. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
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