The Court Barn Museum exhibits work from artists and craftspeople working in the north Cotswolds from the beginning of the Arts and Crafts Movement until the present day
Court Barn Museum is dedicated to demonstrating the skills, expertise and imagination of artists, designers, craftspeople and architects who have worked in the north Cotswolds. The Museum exhibits the work of makers from the beginning of the Arts and Crafts Movement at the end of the nineteenth century, up until the present day.
The Court Barn Museum houses a permanent exhibition of the work of a wide variety of makers, including those working in the Arts and Crafts Movement in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The displays include work by C.R Ashbee who undertook silverwork, jewellery and printed books. He also designed a stylised carnation for his Guild of Handicraft in 1890 and this is used as the Court Barn logo today. Other artists whose work is displayed in the museum include Katharine Adams, a bookbinder; Gordon Russel, a furniture designer and Robert Welch, a silversmith and industrial designer, as well as many others.
There are also collections arranged for research purposes within the museum. These collections include the entire working archive of Robert Welch. Research and learning also extends to the provision of spaces for classes and workshops for schools and other learners. There is a real commitment from the museum to providing good quality learning experiences for all visitors. For example, visitors are given the opportunity to explore the Trust's collections and archives that present a record of craft and design in the north Cotswolds from the end of the eighteenth century. Technology is also used in the form of audio and video displays in order to help to explain the traditions of various crafts in detail.
Court Barn Museum is a project of the Guild of Handicraft Trust, established in 1990 in order to archive and care for the work of makers, designers and architects working in the north Cotswolds since about 1900. The Trust aims to encourage an appreciation of the work of these artists and to therefore foster an interest in good quality hand-crafted work in the present day. The Trust created Court Barn Museum in 2006-7 along with financial help from the Heritage Lottery Fund.