Florida Art Museum Directors Association

August, 2007

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Tarpon Springs, FL -- The Two Red Roses Foundation, a private non-profit institution that collects and exhibits art from the American Arts & Crafts movement, will host a reception for the Florida Art Museum Directors Association meeting at the Florida Association of Museums Annual Conference in Clearwater/Tarpon Springs, September 16th through 19th. The conference theme this year is Making Connections, and TRRF president Rudy Ciccarello says "the Two Red Roses Foundation is pleased to offer such an illustrious group the opportunity to connect with this private collection in our community on September 18th."

The TRRF has mounted a special exhibition of its color woodblock prints for this special occasion. Work by 12 early 20th-century American artists including Arthur Wesley Dow, Gustave Baumann, and Margaret Jordan Patterson will be shown next to a few prints by Canadian and European artists. These works of art were individually printed by hand from carved wooden blocks, usually in very small editions. Most were produced between 1890 and World War I, a time of great interest in hand craftsmanship in the face of growing industrialization in American society.

This is not the first time the Foundation has shared its treasures with the community. In January 2006, the TRRF mounted an exhibition at the Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art, on the Tarpon Springs campus of St. Petersburg College. Called The American Arts & Crafts Home 1900-1915, the exhibition featured 76 examples of furniture, pottery and tiles, painting, woodblock prints, lighting, windows, picture frames, and metalwork, by such makers as Gustav Stickley, Byrdcliffe, Grueby and Rookwood Potteries, Arthur Wesley Dow, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Dirk Van Erp. A catalogue was published to accompany the show. In addition to collecting and exhibiting work from the American Arts & Crafts movement, the Two Red Roses Foundation is committed to nurturing education in the field. In September of 2006 the TRRF granted a total of $15,000 in college scholarships to students from the Tarpon Springs area.

The exhibition of color woodblock prints will be available by private invitation until October 31st. For more information, contact the Two Red Roses Foundation by telephone: (727) 943-9900 or email: email@tworedroses.com