Museum of the American Arts and Crafts Movement facts for kids
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The entrance of MAACM
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| Location | St. Petersburg, Florida, U.S. |
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| Founder | Rudy Ciccarello |
| Owner | Two Red Roses Foundation |
The Museum of the American Arts and Crafts Movement (MAACM) is a special museum in St. Petersburg, Florida. It opened in 2021 and is about the Arts and Crafts Movement. This was a time when artists and craftspeople made beautiful things by hand. The museum shows off a huge collection of art and handmade items from this period.
The museum building is very large, about 137,000 square feet! It has five floors and was designed by Alfonso Architects. Inside, you'll find a grand open space called an atrium, bright skylights, and a cool spiral staircase. There are over 40,000 square feet just for showing art. The museum also has a special gallery for kids, a library, a theater, and a place for graphic design.
The museum was built thanks to a generous art collector named Rudy Ciccarello. His foundation, called The Two Red Roses Foundation, helps fund the museum.
How the Museum Started
The idea for the museum came from Rudy Ciccarello. He collected many amazing pieces of art and crafts. He first thought about building the museum in Tampa, another city in Florida. However, his plans with the city of Tampa did not work out in 2012. So, Mr. Ciccarello decided to build the museum on his own, without help from the government.
It's quite rare for someone to build such a big museum by themselves in the United States. The MAACM was even mentioned in a New York Times article. This article talked about a new trend where wealthy people build museums to share their personal art collections.
Rudy Ciccarello's Collection
Rudy Ciccarello started a very successful business that distributes medicines. He became interested in the Arts and Crafts Movement when he saw a craftsman making a bookcase. This bookcase was a copy of one designed by a famous artist named Gustav Stickley. Rudy decided he wanted the original!
He began collecting art in the early 1990s. He bought many different things, like pottery, metal items, lamps, and even parts of old buildings such as fireplaces and tiled walls. He also collected furniture. More recently, he started collecting old photographs from the early 1900s. These included works by artists like Alfred Stieglitz.
In 2015, Kevin W. Tucker was chosen to be the first director of the MAACM. He had worked at the Dallas Museum of Art before. However, Mr. Ciccarello decided to remove the director position a few months later in December 2015.
What You Can See
The museum's collection includes amazing works by many famous artists and designers from the Arts and Crafts Movement. Some of these include:
- Gustav Stickley
- Charles Rohlfs
- Frank Lloyd Wright
- Artists from the Byrdcliffe Colony
- Greene and Greene
- Dirk van Erp
- Artists from Roycroft
- William Grueby (from Grueby Faience Company)
- Artists from Newcomb Pottery
- Arthur Wesley Dow
An expert named Kent Lydecker, who directs the Museum of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg, Florida, said something very important about this collection. He called it "one of the most important collections of American Arts and Crafts" that is owned by a private person. This means it's a really special and valuable collection!
