Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1920-08-10
AN EVALGENIST
OF ART
Bv FREDERIC 7. HASKIN

~ HICAGO. Ill. Aug. 4.-The ex-
tension department of the
~ Chicago Art Institute Is
about to give the Back to the
support than all the famine alarm
lists put together. And how? Simply
by making the farmers daughters so
chic that the hired man will never
yearn for Broadway.
Mr.. Ross Crane, head of the ex-
tension department of the institute,
is about to start upon his yearly pill
| grimage of spreading art and Gull
ture in the rural districts, and this
time, in addition to his demonstra-
tions of the home beautiful, he will
give the rural ladies a few pointers
on woman beautiful. That is, he and
| Miss Evelyn Hansen, dress demon
strator at the Wisconsin State Nor
NAL School, will give series Of
| talks illustrated by dress exhibitions
On living models, in which they will
endeavor to teach their fair au-
diences how to bring out their often
only too latent charms.
The extension department of the
art institute is really very serious
and most praiseworthy organization.
| Three years ago Mr.. Crane evolved
an idea which was SO big and so
obvious that one wonders why no
one ever thought of it before. 1T
was simply that since a great part
of the population of the country was
unable to visit the few big art mu-
seums in the cities, art should be
taken. to the people. The result of
this happy thought was the extern
sion department of the institute, the
only thing of it's kind in the country.
TAKES ART ON THE ROAD
Every year Mr.. Crane with three
Or four assistants and about a ton
| OF n19tariQ1 Go11fnC 70 ~
terlands of culture and there pro-
| eeeds to make life more beautiful
for the natives. 1t is a fact worthy
of note that these people who have
p peen geographically deprived of
art when it is brought to them than
Is many superior-feeling metropol-
1tan. They are so enthusiastic about
Mr. Crane that many towns have
sent for him two or three times. He
has lectured all the way from
Texas, to Winnipeg, leaving a trail
Of beauty in his wake. Little Rock,
Ark, and Fort Wayne, Tex, Indiana,
have alike been frightened by his
presence. His work has become so
popular that he has had to send
with Hunt Cook as the leader and a
duplicate ton Of material.
This ton Of material is probably
the reason for Mr. Cranes great sue
cess. With it he dramatizes his
talks on be utifying the home. and
thus makes a much greater impress
sion upon his. audience than if he
merely Iecturcd. His equipment con-
slsts of about twenty good modern
! paintings, the three walls, fireplace,
doors and windows of a model room.
| He puts this room up on the plat
form of the auditorium where he is
| featuring, and proceeds to show the
expectant townsfolk and neighbor1ng
farmers how to furnish it pleasingly
and fnexpensive1y.
When the curtaoin goes up the
room has nothing in it but fireplace
and one picture. Using the picture
as keynote for his color scheme
terest, Mr., Crane creates an artis-
tic and homelike room with ma
terials and furniture borrowed from
the towns merchants. Needless to
say the merchants are glad to lend.
A BOOM FOR LOCAL TRADE
Man an eager home-maker rushes
to their shops the next day to buy
rugs of less f1amboyant design,
hanglngs that have some remote re-
latfon to the color of the walls, ana
chairs that seem to have been made
70 10 sit upon m, rather than, to torture
and commerce can be made to 60
hand In hand, certain lofty souls to
the contrary.
In fact it is one or Mr.. Cranes
objects to bring trade and beauty
into harmony. He wants to influ-
ence manufacturers and merchants
to make and sell beautiful things no
less than he wants people to choose
beautiful things for their homes. Ac-
cordiug to Mr.. Crane art isn't some
thing that you hang up on the wall
In frame. or seek out in museum
with the aid &C guide book
Art is not an abstraction" says
Mr.. Crane. unless you show peo-
pie how art makes itself useful in
their lives they are not going to ac-
cept it as anything more than a
luxury. Art is really a necessity,
you know, and the surest way to
make the world realize it is to show
people how their homes are more
comfortable when they are beautiful,
and how their businesses are more
profitable when they make useful,
beautiful things"
America is just beginning to real
iZe the value of beauty as a vital
part of life. The first years Of our
life as a nation were too much oc-
cupied with the building up of our
country, the mere cultivating Of the
wilderness, to give us much time to
concentrate upon the finer but none
the less necessary side Of living.
AS result our sense Of beauty
Italian villas, the frenzied scroll
WORK on our furniture, the gilded
pine cones and hand-painted roll
ing pins in the whatnot, all testify
to the vague yearning for beauty
which the last generation felt and
was Sc helpless to express. And
some Of us are just as\helpless, if
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