Travel With Craft Alliance
Customized Group Travel Focused on Contemporary Craft

The Craft Alliance Travel Committee is planning a number of trips with one thing in mind: enjoyable and educational group travel focused on fine contemporary craft that individual travelers would not have access to on their own.

The hallmark of Craft Alliance travel for the past seven years has been our custom-designed program. There are exclusive visits to artists’ studios and to private collections. We are invited to behind-the-scenes explorations of museums, corporate collections, and university studios. Study leaders enhance our understanding of contemporary crafts. Many times the hotels themselves are points of interest.

To ensure maximum enjoyment, the group is limited to 20 to 25 travelers. All tours are escorted. All you need to do is to sit back and leave the arrangement, luggage, and tipping to us.

Please keep us in mind when planning your future travels. We hope you will join us for one or more of our memorable private tours.

Earl Shreckengast
Travel Committee Chairman

High on Art: St. Louis Collections Tour
Travel Date: October 1, 2005 9:30am to 3:30pm
Click here for trip details!

Have you ever driven past the highrises on Skinker or Hanley and wondered what the condos are like, how they’re decorated, and what art there is? On Saturday, October 1, Craft Alliance will provide memorable spectacular answers to those questions in its “High on Art” tour, which will feature five stunning collections at some of St. Louis’ most prestigious addresses.

Japan
Travel Dates: October 14-26, 2005
Click here for trip details!

Experience the synthesis of traditional and contemporary fine craft and culture in Craft Alliance’s trip to Japan. Contemplate historic temples, shrines, and gardens and tour I.M. Pei’s Miho Museum. Whether it is handwoven textiles, traditional bamboo baskets, contemporary baskets, ceramics or glass, our tour of artists’ studios and private collections will successfully fuse the ancient and the modern.

Glass Sculpture by Flora Mace & Joey Kirkpatrick at Corning Museum of Glass.

TRAVEL REPORT: Western New York

Photos and article courtesy of
Earl Schreckengast

Craft Alliance trips are a terrific mixture of art, education, gourmet food, and unique accommodations. The group of twenty who traveled with Sara Epstein of JourneyWise, Inc. to Western New York in October 2002 enjoyed it all.

Western New York State is steeped in the craft tradition. We visited famous artists' studios and homes, viewed impressive private collections, and participated in customized tours of museums and corporate collections.

Trip participant Jordan Heiman (L) listens to wood artist Wendell Castle (R) explain one of his works in progress.

There were many highlights. East Aurora was the home of Edward Hubbard, a leader in the Arts and Crafts movement. We saw his Roycroft furniture in the museum and sat on it at our hotel. Next we toured Alfred and its university, which is known for ceramics and the famous artist Charles Fergus Binns. And, of course, Corning is a mecca for glass arts enthusiasts. There is a stunning museum of both ancient and contemporary glass that also shows the innovative designs and techniques of the founder of Steuben Glass, Frederick Carder.

It is hard to pick a favorite from the action filled six-day itinerary. Perhaps my favorite was a dinner at Wendell Castle's home and a tour of his studio. Both are filled with his unique and fascinating creations of wood. A close second, though, was a curator-led tour of the Corning corporate glass collection followed by cocktails and dinner at the company's headquarters. Then, again, there was our hotel in Buffalo, The Mansion on Delaware Avenue, which was featured in the February 2003 issue of Architectural Digest!