The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1902-10-08
ART ASSOCIATION.
Montpelier, vt, Oct. 1, 1909.

ana vicinity, tnat III as many as three
hundred persons would form them
selves into an Art Association, and
each member thereof would pay the
sum of five dollars annually into the
treasury of the Wood Art Gallery,
the trustees of the Art Gallery
could undertake the establishment of
Summer Art School, in connection
with the Gallery.
During the autumn and winter fol-
lowing, something less than one hun
dred and twenty five persons re-
sponded to this CALL and of this num-
Der exactly one hundred and two have
paid the first annual fee, making the
receipts from this source amount to
the sum total of five hundred and
ten dollars.
The trustees of the Wood Art Gal
lery elected me as the managing trus-
tee of the Art Association, and au-
thorized Mr.. Wood and myself to pro-
coed at our discretion, with the es-
Enlistment of the Art School. AS
the spring of 1902 wore on, and the
Art Association did not increase its
membership, the question which pre-
sented itself to our minds was whether
to allow the fees from the Art Asso-
citation to accumulate i'll the treasury
of the Wood Art Gallery for a period
of several years, until sufficient sum
for undertaking the Art School should
be gathered, or to proceed at once
with the establishment of one branch
of the School.
1t was finally concluded by us that
it would be more satisfactory to the
members of the Art Association to
have one department of the School es-
tablished this season.
We also concluded that the part in
which the practical interests of this
community were most nearly involved
was sculpture. We then sought among
the first sculptors of New York an in
structor, and finally induced Mr..
Charles Albert Lopez, an artist of the
first rank, to undertake the work.
The terms of the contract with Mr..
Lopez were that the trustees of the
Wood Art Gallery would pay him a
salary of three hundred dollars and
allow him to take the tuition fees of
the students, would furnish him a
class room in the Art Gallery build
ing, and would pay the incidental
expenses of the school.
By the time this arrangement had
been completed it was May /, too late
to attract students from abroad with
our announcement 1t was in fact al
most June before the announcement
was printed.
1t was under these unfavorable con-
ditions that the school was opened by
Mr.. Lopez on July /. Nevertheless
the experiment has proved decided
success. Nineteen pupils, from the
first to the last, have taken instruc-
tion, and the work which some of
them have done has been really excel
lent, and is very promising. The
trustees of the Art Gallery have di-
rected the work of the pupils to be
placed on public exhibition in the
rooms of the Art Association. More
over Mr. Lopez has been obliged to
turn away six persons from abroad
applying for instruction in modelling
from life, on account of the fact that
! no life class was organized.
This showing certainly manifests a
successful beginning with our Art
School. There are many flourishing
institutions in the country today,
whose beginning, from the point of
view of the number of students, was
less promising Take for example,
Smith College at Northampton, which
at least ten thousand dollars for their
instruction, and which today is so
overrun with pupils as not to be able
to find place for all who apply for en-
| trance; and l could easily point to
many like instances.
The trustees of the Wood Art Gal
lery all feel that sound, conservative
and promising commencement of our
Art School has been made and they
are resolved, if sustained by the Art
Association, not only to continue the
courses of instruction which have
been established, but to add new
courses.
1t is their intention to offer instruc-
tion from life to the sculpture class
es, and also to secure instruction in
| figure and landscape painting. They
hope and expect to retain Mr.. Lopez
in control of the sculpture depart
ment, and to secure for the sculpture
classes in painting an artist of equal
| ability and reputation. They intend
to bring out the announcement of the
School early in the year, and conf
IDENTIFY expect good attendance both
from this vicinity and abroad.
1t is quite within reason to predict
| that we shall have, within five years,
self-sustaining art school with two
hundred pupils, if we will only give
sufficient financial support and moral
encouragement in the interim. The
cost of maintaining the school during
! the present season has been five hun
dred and sixty-eight dollars and forty
four cents. OF this amount, the sum
of five hundred and ten dollars has
been covered by membership dues of
the Art Association, and the remain
der, fifty eight dollars and forty four
cents, has been contributed by a trus-
tee of the Art Gallery. We are, there
fore, without penny of debt, and the
income for the present financial year
of the Association, Sept l., 1902 to
Sept, 1909 will all be applied to the
expenses of the next session of the
| School.
We estimate that, with the addi-
tional courses Of instruction above in
Dictated, the session of 1903 will re-
quire an expenditure of from eight to
nine hundred dollars, certainly a small
sum for SO large benefit.
1t is to be hoped that the member
ship of the Art Association will be
pn fap H. a