Museum of the American Arts and Crafts Movement (MAACM) is a museum which opened in 2021 in

St. Petersburg, Florida St. Petersburg is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 258,308, making it the List of municipalities in Florida, fifth-most populous city in Florida and the most populous city in the sta ...

. The museum is funded by The Two Red Roses Foundation, which in turn was endowed by art collector, businessman and philanthropist Rodolfo (Rudy) Ciccarello. The Museum displays the Foundation's collection of fine and decorative arts of the

Arts and Crafts Movement The Arts and Crafts movement was an international trend in the decorative and fine arts that developed earliest and most fully in the British Isles and subsequently spread across the British Empire and to the rest of Europe and America. Initiat ...

period. Construction began in 2015. Designed by Alfonso Architects, the museum is five stories and features a grand atrium, skylights, a spiral staircase, more than 40,000 square feet of gallery space, a children’s gallery, a reference library, a theater, a graphic studio, and a green space. The building is reported to have cost at least $90 million.

History

The Foundation's collection was developed by Rudy Ciccarello. Ciccarello first intended to build the museum in cooperation with the city of

Tampa Tampa ( ) is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. Tampa's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and t ...

on a site across from the

Tampa Museum of Art The Tampa Museum of Art is located in Downtown Tampa, downtown Tampa, Florida. It exhibits modern and contemporary art, as well as Art in Ancient Greece, Greek, Ancient Rome, Roman, and Etruscan civilization, Etruscan antiquities. The museum open ...

at the edge of Curtis Hixon Park. 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 assistance. Dewey Blanton of the

American Alliance of Museums The American Alliance of Museums (AAM), formerly the American Association of Museums, is a non-profit association whose goal is to bring museums together. Founded in 1906, the organization advocates for museums and provides "museum professionals w ...

remarked on the rarity of museums on this scale being built in the United States "these days", while the museum was featured in a

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

article about the trend in museums built by wealthy people to house their personal collections. 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 Gustav Stickley (March 9, 1858 – April 15, 1942) was an American furniture manufacturer, design leader, publisher, and a leading voice in the American Arts and Crafts movement. Stickley's design philosophy was a major influence on American ...

, and decided to buy the original. 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. More recently, he began to collect photographers of the early 20th century Pictorialist movement, and the

Photo-Secession The Photo-Secession was an early 20th century movement that promoted photography as a fine art in general and photographic pictorialism in particular. A group of photographers, led by Alfred Stieglitz and F. Holland Day in the early 20th centur ...

movement, including

Alfred Stieglitz Alfred Stieglitz (; January 1, 1864 – July 13, 1946) was an American photographer and modern art promoter who was instrumental over his 50-year career in making photography an accepted art form. In addition to his photography, Stieglitz was k ...

. Kevin W. Tucker, the former Margot B. Perot Senior Curator of Decorative Arts and Design with the

Dallas Museum of Art The Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) is an art museum located in the Arts District of downtown Dallas, Texas, along Woodall Rodgers Freeway between St. Paul and Harwood. In the 1970s, the museum moved from its previous location in Fair Park to the A ...

was appointed the inaugural Director of the MAACM in August 2015. Ciccarello dissolved the Director position in December 2015.

Collection

The collection includes work by

Charles Rohlfs Charles Rohlfs (February 15, 1853 – June 30, 1936), was an American actor, patternmaker, stove designer and furniture maker. Rohlfs was a representative of the Arts and Crafts Movement, and was most famous for his skill as a furniture ...

Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright Sr. (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed List of Frank Lloyd Wright works, more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key ...

, the artists of

Byrdcliffe Colony The Byrdcliffe Colony, also called the Byrdcliffe Arts Colony or Byrdcliffe Historic District, was founded in 1902 near Woodstock, New York by Jane Byrd McCall Whitehead, Jane Byrd McCall and Ralph Radcliffe Whitehead and colleagues, Bolton Brow ...

Greene and Greene Greene and Greene was an architecture, architectural firm established by brothers Charles Sumner Greene (1868–1957) and Henry Mather Greene (January 23, 1870 – October 2, 1954), influential early 20th century American architects. Active prim ...

, Dirk van Erp,

Roycroft Roycroft was a reformist community of craft workers and artists which formed part of the Arts and Crafts movement in the United States. Elbert Hubbard founded the community in 1895, in the village of East Aurora, New York, near Buffalo. Part ...

, William Grueby,

Newcomb Pottery Newcomb Pottery, also called Newcomb College Pottery, was a brand of American Arts & Crafts pottery produced from 1895 to 1940. The company grew out of the pottery program at H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College, the women's college now associated ...

, and

Arthur Wesley Dow Arthur Wesley Dow (April 6, 1857 – December 13, 1922) was an American painter, printmaker, photographer and an arts educator. Early life Arthur Wesley Dow was born in Ipswich, Massachusetts, in 1857. Dow received his first art training in 188 ...

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

References

External links

* {{authority control Arts and Crafts movement Art museums and galleries in Florida Museums in St. Petersburg, Florida Decorative arts museums in the United States