In Honor of Oak: Special installation, on view now on MAACM's second floor

Curated by MAACM’s founder Rudy Ciccarello, In Honor of Oak is a special installation of never-before exhibited furniture dedicated to the material that shaped the Arts and Crafts Movement: oak. Inspired by the past and creating for the future, craftsmen, like Stickley, looked to oak as a material that was strong enough to stand the test of time, and beautiful enough to appeal to the movement’s natural design aesthetic. More than just beautiful, the wood panels used in this collection of furniture are structurally stronger than your everyday oak boards, because of a lumber processing technique popular during the Arts and Crafts Movement, called “quarter sawing.” This process begins by cutting a log of wood into four pieces length wise, creating wedges, and then cutting those wedges into boards. By using quarter sawn oak, these furniture panels reveal a beautiful tiger-stripe pattern known as ray flecks and have stood the test of time, remaining in pristine condition after more than 100 years.