What is the Two Red Roses Foundation?

The Two Red Roses Foundation is a non-profit educational institution dedicated to the acquisition, restoration, and public exhibition of important examples of furniture, pottery and tiles, lighting, textiles, and fine arts from the American Arts & Crafts movement. The Foundation, endowed by generous gifts from Florida businessman Rudy Ciccarello, who has assembled one of the largest personal collections of Arts & Crafts in America since 1997, has been mandated to foster public recognition and appreciation of the high quality craftsmanship and design philosophy of the period, 1900-1920.

Much of the finest work produced during the American Arts & Crafts movement has been concentrated in the hands of private collectors for years. Popular national and international exhibitions have been mounted in major American cities. Now, some exceptional and uniquely American art, including Gustav Stickley furniture, pottery and ceramic tiles by the Grueby Faience Company of Boston and Cincinnati’s Rookwood Pottery, Dirk Van Erp hammered copper lamps, and paintings by Arthur Wesley Dow and Childe Hassam, will now be accessible to the public in Florida.  According to David Rago, whose auction house in Lambertville, New Jersey, was instrumental in the resurgence of interest in the Arts & Crafts movement, “it is extraordinary that Rudy Ciccarello has assembled one of the better Arts & Crafts collections in the country in only thirteen years. Most high-level collectors have been at this for thirty years or more.” The Foundation will continue to expand the collection, even as it turns its attention to an active exhibition and education program.

All queries should be directed to the Two Red Roses Foundation, 4190 Corporate Court Palm Harbor, Florida 34683 email@tworedroses.com, telephone: 727-943-2144 or fax: 727-943-2402

  THE TWO RED ROSES FOUNDATION MISSION STATEMENT

The mission of the Two Red Roses Foundation, a private, non-profit educational institution in Tarpon Springs, Florida, is to promote understanding of the American Arts & Crafts movement through the collection, conservation, exhibition, and interpretation of the decorative and fine arts.

To that end, the Foundation

• collects and conserves objects made in America between approximately 1900 and 1920 which reflect the spirit of reform in design and production, generally accepted as the Arts & Crafts Movement
• collects publications and archival material related to its collection
• supports research pertinent to its collection
• lends objects from its collection for exhibition by other institutions, disseminates the results of that research through exhibitions, publications, and other educational activities and programs for the general public and school children