Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-01-28
AN ART GLASS NOVELTY
IMPORTED FROM PARIS AND At
TRACTS MANY ASPIRANTS.

PHlLADELPHlA January 2T.-The lat
est novelty in art circles is the 10-cent art
class started at the schools of the Pennsyl-
vana Academy of the Fine Arts
Facetious art students of the advanced
classes call it the Dime Museum" The
idea originated with the curator of the
schools, Mr. John Pierce, who. while on a
recent European tour visited the art
schools of Paris and was impressed with
the usefulness of a class intended to en-
courage shy aspirants for art fame to try
their, hand at sketchlng from the figure.
The class that has been modelled after this
Partisan one at the Academy of Fine Arts
and which has been given the dfsrespectful
name quoted above is already such a ire
mendous' success that 1t is impossible to
find places for the number of applicants
and limit has been set
The price of admission to the class is in
tended merely to cover the cost of the
models and to pay for the light used
Three models are in costume, and any one
can come in and sketch and, provided they
lind room to stand or sit, may begin the
tedious climb up the hill of fame by the
high-art route.
Nominal Price Charged
As may be supposed, the merely nominal
price charged attracts numbers of boys and
girls who have talent for drawing, but
no money to develop it and the instructors
who crtticse the work n the classes have
been vastly pleased to find among the great
mass of weird productions some really
promising work by students in whom the
talent for drawing is evidently inherent.
There is great comfort to the sensitive
seeker after artistic proficiency in the
thought that to the right and left and in
front and rear of his drawing board there
are sketches and brush wielders whose
erratic fingers will impress on paper or can
vas no more successful picture of the model
posing than he himself is capable of pro-
ducing. Put that same student in one of
the regular classes and he will become
possessed of the thought that he is a laugh
ingstock to his classmates, and the drawing
board and charcoal putfit zayiH probably be
for sale next morning. But a glance around
shows the beginner in the Dime Museum
class that there are plenty worse than he,
and he applies himself to his work with
confidence and contentment.
1t is chiefly with the idea of helping the
student to get safely across the Rubicon
OF bashfulness into the green country of
confident that the l0-cent class has been
established Get all the green ones to-
gether and there will be more keen rivalry
and less encouragement at the outset"
said the school authorities. So far the wis
dom of the idea has been established, for
instead of the great falling off in attend
ance noticeable when d new class in art
is under way and discouraged ones be-
gin to throw down their tools in disgust at
being outdistanced there has been a con-
slant growth in the numbers until the
rooms are so crowded on the dime class
night that it is impossible to move around
during the waits and students have to
squat down on the floor and draw with
their boards resting against their knees.
No Trifers Are Wanted.
With such a crowd it is necessary to exer-
else close supervision in order that no
trifiers may be permitted to get past the
doorkeeper. A beginner is pardoned for
turning in for criticism a sketch that sug-
gests the work of the ancient Egyptian
artist on the tombstones of the kings, but
if he continues night after night to throw
the instructors into spasms he will be in
yited to seek some other road to fame
Neither is any one allowed to sit idly in the
class room. Space is too valuable for that
The boys and girls must work even if they
fail to present more than caricature OF
the model.
Everything possible is done to encourage
the students, for it is the cardinal motive of
the originatorS to give a chance for the
development of latent talent, but keen
eye has to be kept on the workers for the
purpose of wedding out the impossible ones,
the infinitesimal size of the Zee charged
being temptation TO many to come in and
try their hands just for the fun of the
thing.
At the close OF the sketching period the
work of the class is reviewed by the in
structors. Shade of Raphael and ghost of
Botticelli! What collection of drunk and
disorderly figures are paraded before the
eyes of the 10-cent class. 1t requires
kindly instructor and one who has been
long at the work of reviewing the efforts
of novices in art to find good points in al
most all of the sketches handed up for
criticism, but, although the words of the
reviewer are not selected from the hymnal
he seems always to find at least one proms-
ing point in the cruelty contorted figure
that glooms at him from the drawing board.
Whatever advanced students may say
about the dime museum" class, it has I'M
doubtedy made hit with aspirants after
art, and as the class grows older tonly
three nights have been devoted to it so
far many of the beginners will forge ahead
and, as they feel their artistic feet, will
climb with increasing fapidity toward the
prize all impecunious art students covet-
a scholarship that insures opportunity for
sfiIfiv in Ellrone.