ARTS AND CRAFTS EXHIBITION SOCIETY
The Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society was formed in London in 1887 to promote the exhibition of decorative arts alongside fine arts, the illustrator and designer Walter Crane served as the founding president of the Society for its first three years. The Society's exhibitions were held annually at the New Gallery from 1888 to 1890, and around every three years other exhibiting venues included the Grosvenor Gallery and the Royal Academy. The Society was important in the flowering of the British Arts and Crafts Movement in the decades prior to the First World War. Although the Society's exhibitions were regularly mounted in Britain from 1888, they also participated in international exhibitions overseas, including Turin in 1902, St Louis in 1904, and Ghent in 1913. In 1928 the Society opened its own showrooms at 34 Bloomsbury Street, London where three floors were devoted to displaying the works of artists such as John Armstrong, Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant. In 1960, it merged with the Cambridgeshire Guild of Craftsmen to form the Society of Designer Craftsmen