Carmel Arts and Crafts Club, Art gallery in Carmel-by-the-Sea, United States.
The Carmel Arts and Crafts Club was an art gallery and theatre club founded in 1905. Its first permanent clubhouse, a building costing $2,500, was completed in July 1907 on Monte Verde Street south of Eighth Avenue. In 1923–1924 the club added the Carmel Arts and Crafts Theatre on an adjacent lot on Monte Verde Street.
The Carmel Club of Arts and Crafts was formed in 1905 by Elsie Allen, a former art instructor at Wellesley College. In 1907 a $2,500 clubhouse opened on Monte Verde Street south of Eighth Avenue, and by 1913 the club ran a summer art school where William Merritt Chase taught his last class in 1914. Its theatre productions let it buy the Forest Theater in 1925; in 1929 Edward G. Kuster took over its theatrical operations.
The club's name came from its founding aim: fostering arts and crafts in the village. Its early members mixed writers and painters, among them Mary Austin, George Sterling, Robinson Jeffers and Sinclair Lewis, who took part in club events. Sinclair Lewis served as master of ceremonies at the 1907 "Dutch Market" that raised money for the clubhouse.
Both galleries are within easy walking distance along Dolores Avenue in the town center. They are located close to each other on the same street, making it simple to visit both spaces during a single outing.
The club's 1907 clubhouse on Monte Verde Street cost $2,500 and was funded by a "Dutch Market" whose booths were run by the wives of George Sterling, Sydney J. Yard and Michael J. Murphy, with Sinclair Lewis as master of ceremonies. In 1914 William Merritt Chase taught his last and largest summer class here, with over one hundred pupils paying $15 for six weeks.
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