The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-01-12 00:00:00

Soul atto gtstrirt

STOURBRIDGE SCHOOL OF ART.

The anrual meeting of the School of Art was held
on Monday last, in the schoolroom, under the
presidtncy of Mr. H. J. W. H. Foley. The following
report was read by Mr. A. W. Worthington, hon.
sec. :

The committee beg to preseet their report for
the year ending the 31st July last. During the
year the numb. r of pupils who have attended the
school is at th rielit class 98, in:lading boys from
Oldswinford Hospital, snd 31 at the morning class,
being together ad, crease of 3 from the number
attending during the pre io is year. Besides these,
about 180 ptipiee of the St. Jambs', (Wollaston) and
the Wollastou Road Schools have received instruc-
tions from the masters In May last 62 pupils at-
tended the exemin ition and sent in 90 papers in
second grade drawing; numely, 27 in model, 51 in
froshand 5 in geometrical, and 4 in perspective,
which have been adjudicated upon by the Science
aed Art Department. Of these works, in the re-
sults 4 were marked as " excelent " and obtained
second grade prizes, 19 as "passed," and 67 as
having" failed to pass; " three pupils have gained
five third grade prizes, and 1040 works of 105
students have been sent to the Science and Art De-
partment. List year the committee in their report
lamented the decrease in the number of pupils who
attended the examinatioe, and the large percentage
of failures; this year, w die they repeat the hope
they then expressed that a asters and pupils alike
would spare no pains to se cure a larger at, endance
and more satisfactory results in future, they have
tl,e satisfactioa of resorting that, as compared with
last year, the number of those who attended in-
creased from 46 to 62, and the failures decreased
from 92 to 74 per cent. They trust that next year
they will have the satisfaction of reporting a still
greater imp ovement. The prizes to the successful
students of the previous year were distributed at a
meeting held on the Bth isnuary last, at which Sir
Rupert Kettle presided and delivered a most in-
teresting address on the subject of art education
and its application to the requirements of this
neighbourhood It hay ng recently been sug-
gested that, in the interests of operatives at Brierley
Hill,lWordsley and the neiehbourhood, Art Classes
shou'd be established at, Brierley Hill, and the
Brierley Hill School Board having kindly granted
the use of their Bent Street School for the purpose
on very liberal terms, tne committee have deter-
mined to try the expetime at. On the 25th of
September last a publics meeting, under the
presidency of H. 0. Firrnstone, Esquire, was held
to inaugurate the classes, which your committee
hope vii be found to increase the utility of the
school, by bringing Art Education more directly to
bear on the glass and other manufactures of this
' neighbourhood. The committee have to acknow-
ledge the great assistance they received in the
formation of these classes from the exertions of
Mr. J. S. Williams. As to the finances of the
school, the committee have no longer to appeal to
their friends to relieve it from the burden of the
mortgage. Thanks to the active exertions of Mr.
F. Evers in collecting subieriptions for the purpose
and to the liberal response with which those
exertions were met, a sufficient addition was made
to the Sinking Fund to enable the committee to
discharge the debt. The committee of the Wor-
cestershire Exhibition in dividing the surplus funds
allotted the sum of £135 to the school, towards the
expenses of the repair and better adaptation of the
school buildings, provided the mortgage debt were
paid off and the rest of su It expense were raised,
other by local subscription or Government gran I
The c( mmittes are not sanguine as to obtaining
any Government grant for the purpose, and propose
to enter into further communication with the Ex-
hibition committee as to the terms on which their
grant can be paid. The income of the year, after
baking credit for arrears of subscriptions and fees,
was £l3 12s 111. and the expenditure was
£23 18s 41d, less than last year's ; but, as last
years account contained items of purchase money
for wall and contribution to Sinking Fund amount-
big together to £3l is 6d, if these items were ex-
cluded from the comparison, there would be an in-
crease in expenditure of .27 3s leid. Of the de-
creases in income that in fees amounts to £9 6s 01d,
that ia subscriptions to £1 us Od, and that in
Government grant to £4 13s 6d, The committee
express their hope that they will be eaabled, by
the per-onal interest and pecuniary support of the
friends of the school, still further to increase its
efficiency and usefulness.
The Chairman said, with regard to improving the
school now the debt was paid off, he did not see
that there could be another immediate subscription
for such a purpose. A good deal of the money that
had been raised lately had not come out of the town,
but from the neighbouring country gentlemen,
whom it seemed to be the tendency of the present
day to wipe off the face of the earth. He did not
think the committee could expect much more from
them. It was true they might have a Mayor and
Corporation in a year's time, and perhaps they
would look to them to support their indatution,
but so far from Stourbridge being increased in im-
portance by incorporation, his feeling was that if he
was dragged into the town of Stourt.ridge he should
not come with a good will, and it would certainly
have the effect of closing his purse strings to any-
thing in the town of Stourbridge. He should only
come in unwillingly. Having referred to the
success which had attended Mr. Frank Evers'e
efforts to free the school from debt, the Chairman
saggestei that they should ealist the services of
the county members, to assist them in the en-
deavour to get a Government grant for the improve-
ment of the school. It was important that they
should have a School of Art which was not in a
languishing state and he hoped the future of the
school would be a satisfactory one. The Chairman
afterw ,r.is distributed the prizes to the following :
—Government prizes, 3rd grade. Miss M. Kideon.
for outline drawing from flat examples; Frank
Porter, for designs treating natural objects orna-
mentally; Frank Porter, for designs for carpets and
for designs to fl 1 given spaces in colour; John W.
Saunders, for shading ornaments from the cast, in
chalk. 2nd grade. Miss M. Kidson, for freehand
drawing; Miss Fe A. Onions, for freehand, per-
spective and model; Joseph A Meredith, geometry
land G. H. Smith, for freehand. Committee's prizes.
Outline drawing flat examples, Miss M. Ki.isou and
William Pratt; Outline drawing from nature,
Frank Porter and Charles Northweod ; Gain°
drawing from the figure from flat exareples, Miss
M. Kideon nod Fria Guest; Striding the figure
from flat examples, Miss Florence Mu •kles ; Sha l-
ing the figure fr an the cast, W. Pardoe and Ludwig
Kay ; Shading orn orients fow the cast, J. NV.
Saunders and A. Nesh ; Original:deeignsfor carpete,
Fragic Porter ; Original desiges treating natural
obj chi, ornamentally, Frank l'orter ; Original
designs to fill given spaces in colour, Frank Port -r;
On Anal design for wrought iron gates, Ch ades
Northwood; flowers from fiat examples,
W. Pa.rdoe and Miss E. Gething. Boys from Old-
swinford Hospital School. Outline drawing from
flat ex envier, W. Cooper and Alonzo Curtis; Shad-
ing ornaruente from flat exemt he, Edwin Butler
and Alonzo Curti.. The follewites received cer-
tificates from Government tor 2nd era le drawing :
—William J. Evans, freehand; G. S. Oeueh, free
hand and model; F. It. Grice, model ; W. U.
Guest, model ; W. Guest, freehtad ; Lndwig Kity.
geometri• al ;W. Massey, freehand; Samuel New-
man, geometry; \V. Pardoe, gecene.ry ; Julia
Saunders, geometry; H. Sparrow, freohauit ; R.
H Thonaps.m, freehand ; H. Wilkiaeoa, free and ;
Alonzo Curtis, mo lel ; Delude Dingley, freeheed ;
James E. Sheldon, freeh turd ; and grnest W. Bliss,
freehand.

------ -
Mr. A. Worthington moved a resolution that th-
objects :tinted at by the School of Art were im-
portant to Stourbridge and the neigbourhood, and
not only deserved the general supp trt of the
wealthy, butwere earneat'y reconitneoled to the
youth of both sexes in the diatrict. IJ, -retnorked
on the fact that sonie cf those formerly connected
prom in .nat positionl in the
with the Achota ha 1 iron
world of Art, and testiti:3l to the torsis eta efforts
of the present master, Mr. SitutnA, to extend ete
work of tha schoo!. Ily his help th:: co.rarnitt.,
had been enahled to csti.blish a branch at Bri,:r
Rill, and he had al6o opened a ne%! clam, 4,,
modelling, which he hoped would add an importit
brancn to the la.bouis of the schoo!s. Anob.er in-
novation was made in throwing open the night
class to female stmlnitl. The committee wished
to improve the school, and he was obliged to the
chairman for the su....;e:ltion of asking their members
to use their influence with regard to obtaining a
grant for the purpo4e. Mr. Worthington then
pointed out the be tring of the school on the tralcs
of the distric,, aud ur,p-d var:oas considerations
why the instituti at should be more used.
Mr. il. Billiugham secondel the resolution,
which was suppurtul by. Mr. J.
_S Williams, who