| Carmel Arts and Crafts Club | |
| Map Type: | USA California Northern |
| Location City: | Carmel-by-the-Sea, California |
| Location Country: | United States |
| Coordinates: | 36.5553°N -121.9233°W |
| Region Served: | Monterey County, California |
| Successor: | Carmel Art Association |
| Founder: | Elsie Allen |
| Founding Location: | Carmel-by-the-Sea |
| Dissolved: | 1927 |
| Type: | Art Gallery, Club |
| Purpose: | To attract artists to Carmel |
| Services: | Performances, poetry readings, lectures, and summer school |
The Carmel Arts and Crafts Club was an art gallery, theatre and clubhouse founded in 1905, by Elsie Allen, a former art instructor for Wellesley College.
In 1906, the Carmel Development Company provided the club with their first building on Ocean Avenue. Their first art exhibit was held in this temporary building.[1] Foster formed a committee to raise money to build a permanent site for the clubhouse. It raised money by holding a "Dutch Market" with booths to sell goods and food at the park across the Hotel Carmelo. Those in charge of the booths were: George Sterling's wife, Sydney J. Yard's wife, Michael J. Murphy's wife, and others. Sinclair Lewis acted as master of ceremonies. By July 1907, a lot and the clubhouse building costing $2,500 was completed on Monte Verde Street south of Eighth Avenue.
Every summer Jennie V. Cannon travelled to the Monterey Peninsula, and in 1907 purchased real estate in Carmel, where she joined the local art colony, participated in its birth and development, and exhibited at the Carmel Arts and Crafts Club.[2]
Harold Sutton Palmer spoke at the club in March 1907 as well as musical selections by Mabel Gray Lachmund, Peral Tuttle, Sallie Ehrmann, and a reading by Fanny M. Yard, wife of watercolor artist Sydney J. Yard.[3] Other early events included the Café-chantant and bazar to raise funds to pay for an art exhibition held at the clubhouse;[4] entertainment for the Manzanita Club, which included music and dancing followed by dinner and speeches.[5]
On July 16, 1908, the first annual breakfast of the club was held at the clubhouse. George Sterling was toastmaster for thirty-two members of the club. Mary E. Hand was introduced as president of the club,[6] which she held for sixteen years.
On September 24, 1911, the Club put on the play The Land of Heart's Desire, produced by Herbert Heron, at the Forest Theater amphitheater in Carmel.[7] From July 4-5th 1916, the Club presented The Piper, by Josephine Preston Peabody at the Forest Theater.[8] Four Carmel artists acted and painted scenery: Arthur Honywood Vachell, Mary DeNeale Morgan, William F. Ritschel, and Laura W. Maxwell.[9]
From July through September 1914 William Merritt Chase taught his last summer class, his largest with over one hundred pupils, at the Summer School Of Art.[10]
By September 1927, the Carmel Art Association replaced the Carmel Summer School Of Art and became the center of the art community on the Monterey Peninsula.[11] [12]
In 1928, the Abalone League, a local amateur baseball club and active thespian group, bought the Carmel Arts and Crafts Hall and renamed it the Abalone Theatre. The proceeds were used to pay off the Forest Theater debts.[13] [14] [15] [16]
In 1929, after returning from is European trip, Edward G. Kuster was approached by the Abalone League who, beset by financial trouble, offered to sell Kuster its entire theatre operation, including both the Monte Verde and Casanova Street buildings - an offer that Kuster readily accepted. Kuster remodeled the facility and renamed it the Studio Theatre of the Golden Bough.[17]