New-York tribune., 1907-09-07
THE TEACHING OF ART.
Where Instruction hay Be Had
Demand for artists.

DCUluNu jOf LAf teo'o'
America 1.-The Land of Contrasts" is at one
moment pointed to the home Of extreme prac-
ticality and the next as the stamping ground
of idealists. Qualities to prove the htness Oh
both designations cited in the nations po-
Hticaf life in its industries and particularly in
its great educational system. But more espe-
ciaIly in it's institutions for the teaching ana
dissemination of art and In the lie CT ns DR.
lists and art lovers do both classifications seem
to fit.
An example of the way in which Americans
60 about delivering the goods" even in the case
of art is in their comprehensive scheme
for teaching It. AS long ago as 1870 the people
decided that child with a talent for drawing
should grow up without an opportunity TO sho"
it. and therefore drawing has since been On
obligatory exercise in the myriads OF puphc
schools throughout the length and breadth OF
the land. The wisdom of this decree was SHOWN
at the Paris fair where, in competition Win
the world American scholars carried off a num-
Der of grand prizes. More eloquent sun ls the
manner In which great art museums with thor
oughly appointed art schools nave sprung UP
in all the centres of population. the private
gifts Of hard headed captains of industry or
monuments erected by the earnings OF the
shrewd industrious people themselves
SCHOOLS OF ART
And the artists have banded together in
practical way in each large city 10 disseminate
the taste for good art and to that those or
their professional brethren who are deserving
may exhibit their work under favorable au-
spices Just such organizations are the Ma
tional Academy of Design and the Art Students
League in New York. Both these organizations
conduct classes in still life, life, hiustratlol
painting and the other branches or design
Cooper Union furnishes free classes to the tai
ent which abounds in the city's great nation OF
Door Nearly every branch of art Is taught
there by competent masters. Columbia Uni
velsity provides facilities for training teach
ers of art. And then there are the EthlcaI
Culture School the Guild of Arts ana crafts
Hebrew Technical Institute the Mechanics IN
sttue the New York School Of Applied De
sign for Women, the New York School OF Art
the New York School OF Industrial Art, the
BROOKLYN Art School, Pratt institute, pubic
evening schools. the Whipple School of Art and
the Young Women's Christian Association. all OF
which contribute to supply the great demand
for proficiency in art which prevails in this cor
ner of the United States.
Many of New York's prominent artists take
private pupils or have classes working under
tneir criticism in their studios in separate
ateIiers For every form and description OF
art work there competent teachers, so tha'
the art studen: who desires 10 learn drawing
painting, decoration. portraiture. illustrating
cartooning what not can ma every laclil'y
for instruction.
On n smaller scale the same facilities are OF
rered in all of the larger American cities Their
art museums, like the Metropolitan Museum OF
Art. thrOnged every day by nunurcds, luIHISi
the incentive and the example to dormant talent
These museums have been stocked with treas
ures from every land. many of them bought for
large sums by wealthy citizens and presented to
the public Every city of size has these art
loving benefactors who are buying continually
for private collections well as for the public,
and who furnishing an ever widening mar
ket for the American artist
And yet in spite of this seemingly overwhelm-
ing proof of the idealism which underlies the
hard common sense of the American there are
those VI no consider American art merely a tenn
porarv excrescence on the nations hard indus
trial shell This attitude seems partly due to
the habit which American art students have OF
going to Paris for their training, and thereby.
IL fs said, producing a French art rather than
one distinctly national Now that America has
her own colony of great artists, her own vast
system OF art schools and her art museums
larger number of American students seem bound
are better for national expression, and to imbbe
more thoroughly, while their minds and charac-
ters are plastic, the mighty spirit of American
fdealsm. the fundamental characteristic of the
land and the people.
DEMAND FOR ART IN AMERICA.
The demand for the work 90 the artist in
America be he painter, sculptor or illustrator,
apDcars overwhelming. The painter is perhaps
in greater favor with the Immensely wealthy
private collector, whose clan is ever swelling.