The Worcester Spy

ITS AIMS.

Mission of the Art League.

RAPID GROWTH
Of the Movement Indicates Good Results.

There are few of the activities of the public school system of the city that have more quickly attained an important place and a recognition of the same, than has the Art league, which was organized three years ago for the purpose of cultivating the love of the artistic in the school children.

Instituted in 1895, through the efforts of Rev. A. S. Garver, it was officially recognized by being put under the supervision and control of the school committee, although having its own officers and by-laws, and having but two members of the school board upon its rolls.

The object of the league, as set forth in its by-laws, is "to cultivate in the people, through the influence of the public school pupils, a desire for a finer life by creating among them a love for the beautiful, promoting and strengthening this love among the pupils by a more extended and artistic decoration of the school rooms."

It is also the work of the league to promote this end by the raising of funds to furnish suitable works of art to the schools.

In its comparatively brief existence the league has succeeded in making excellent headway towards the goal at which it aims, namely the furnishing of the walls of our graded school rooms with works of art that will be an inspiration to the budding manhood and womanhood that occupies them, but, as in every good work, there has been a certain amount of hampering the progress by the lack of necessary funds.

The art exhibit that is now in progress in the office rooms formerly occupied by the superintendent of public schools, at 476 Main street and which has been noticed before in the columns of The Spy, is an effort that the league is making towards the attainment of its ends and one that happily is meeting the cordial support of the people of the city.

Lest there are those who are not as yet familiar with the character of the exhibition, it may be outlined something in this fashion. There is now on display at the place mentioned a collection of reproductions of all the best works of art of all ages, which have been chosen especially with reference to their suitability for decoration of the school room.

They represent all the schools of art from the beginning of the earlier civilizations of the world down to the present time. These are framed to the number of five hundred, and hung about the walls of the room so as to be easily inspected and studied. Each picture is numbered, and is by this means readily looked up in the catalogue which may be obtained by the visitor. The catalogue explains the picture in brief, telling the subject, the artist, his time of birth and death, the school to which he belonged and the place in which the original of his painting now hangs.

In addition to the hanging pictures, there is a collection of over ten thousand unmounted photographs of noted works of art that may be examined by adults or by the children under the direction of the teachers or parents.

The object of the exhibit is to aid the work of the Art League in several ways. The principal one is by obtaining money with which to place works of art in the school rooms of the city. To this end the small admission fee is charged, the entire proceeds going to the object stated.

The other most important object of the exhibit is to aid the work of the league by interesting the people of the city in the work that it is doing. The desire on the part of the officers and members of the league is very strong that the people of Worcester should awake to a better realization of the importance of encouraging artistic study in the schools.

By placing suitable pictures and good examples of pure and elevating art into the school rooms, results that are more far-reaching in their effects than can be estimated cannot but be accomplished. It is too well known a fact to require statement, that the age which finds children in the public schools is the most impressionable one of their lives, the one in which their future characters and consequently careers are almost inevitably moulded.

At this time they are ready to receive impressions as clay in the hands of the potter, and it behooves the one who would elevate the condition of the whole race, to look to the public school room for the fulcrum point of his lever.

The idea of making the study of art an important and vital portion of the public school curriculum is a comparatively recent one, but one that is so well justified by the dictates of common sense that it is remarkable that it should have been as long as it was in gaining its rightful place there. The advancement of any civilization must of necessity be aided by anything that tends to the nearer approach of people in general to the best ideals of what is truly beautiful and worthy of notice in the world that is about us.

The cultivation of the finer feelings that the heart is capable of always tends to higher standards of citizenship and morality. It has always been the record of history that the high tides of civilization in the annals of all the races of the world have coincided with their highest attainments in the realms of art and literature.

There are many reasons why the study of classic art should be encouraged in the schools. The principal one, of course, is the economic one just cited, which is the best advantage that can be brought forth by anything educational or otherwise, namely the making of the younger generation better fitted to become worthy citizens of the republic. Nearer at hand apparently than this, there are advantages to be noted as coming from art study, in the routine work of the schools. Properly conducted, it may be used to interest the scholars in their studies as almost nothing else can.

The power of suggesting the potency to arouse the imagination that a picture made by an artist that in mind when he worked more than the mere lines he drew, cannot be overestimated. Into whatever of the ordinary branches of the school work one may look, a good reproduction of a great picture at the command of a wise teacher can open up untold vistas to the youthful mind and make even the dry bones of history, geography and even mathematics wonderfully interesting.

The thought of the artist as he worked, the accessories of the scene he depicts, the life and times in which he lived, and a hundred kindred topics, can be developed by a teacher who sees the value of such an exercise to the vast advantage of the pupils and greatly to the instructor's own benefit in the matter of ease of accomplishing his or her routine work. In many of the schools of the city it is already the custom to have certain hours every week devoted to such exercises as this, and it has been found that the pupils take hold of the idea with gratifying avidity.

It is the object of the Art League to encourage this idea as best it may by furnishing to the schools the works of art that are the indispensable accompaniment of such work. It is hoped in time that there may be a room given up in each school building to an exhibit of pictures, casts and pottery that will greatly aid this work. Aside from the educational advantage of the idea, every one is realizing nowadays that bright and cheery school rooms are a necessity, and their beauty can in no way be so much enhanced as by having on the walls pictures that are a delight and an inspiration to the children who look upon them.

The present art exhibit is an excellent opportunity for pupils and teachers and citizens to get an idea of the possibilities of this kind of decoration. In addition to the reproductions that were previously mentioned in The Spy, there have been added to the collection this week a number of reprints of the first sketches from which some of the great pictures have been developed and these form an interesting addition as showing the first flash of inspiration that genius uses from which to mature its greatest productions.

The exhibition will be kept open until next Wednesday night by special arrangement, instead of closing last night, as was at first advertised. The attendance has been very gratifying this week, and several thousand scholars as well as parents have visited the exhibit.