Radical Craft in the Classroom: The Arts and Crafts Movement, Progressive Education, and Arts Integration

Taking the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum’s recent exhibition Radical Craft: Arts Education at Hull-House, 1889–1935 as a starting point, we examine approaches to arts education cultivated at the outset of the 20th century at the Chicago Institute, whose teachers and benefactors also were involved at Hull-House. We describe the connections between the Arts and Crafts Movement and progressive education, and the ways a desire to beautify the world—and transform it in the process—influenced turn-of-the-century educators affiliated with the Chicago Institute. Through close readings of educational journals published by the Chicago Institute and then the University of Chicago (after the two merged in 1901), we examine specific ways Chicago Institute teachers integrated art across the curriculum and describe how their methods enhanced learning. In our conclusion, we reflect on the relevance of this turn-of-the-century version of arts integration for today’s teachers and students, particularly as we navigate the use of generative artificial intelligence in classrooms. By bringing together the history of art with the history of education, we aim to call attention to the continuing importance and potential radicalism of integrating artistic experience in classrooms.