Evening star., 1925-04-02
THE NORTH WINDOW
BY LEILA MECHLIN.

Club, headed by H. K. ush-Bi6wn,
| tne sculptor, has made a recomm en- =
| oation to the Board of Education
| concerning their decoration. 1t is not
| new idea Years ago Ross Turner
| we'll known artist of Massachusetts,,
| induced the school authorities in
Salem, Mass, to permit the decoration
| of one of their schooIhouses in an
| exemplary manner. and since then
| many in other places have followed
| suit. In New York City, through the
instrumentality of the Public School
Art Society, not only have pictures
and casts been placed in the schools,
but several very handsome r-ural
paintings by artists of high stt ding
rave been secured and given perma-
nent placement. In one instance a
series was donated by Mrs. E. H.
Hartman. The Public School Art
Society of Chicago has been most ac-
| tive in this direction and has had
| splendid support. The city of Chi
| cago buys several thousand dollars
worth of pictures every year from
the local artists and distributes them
among the schools. Moreover, the
advanced students in the School of
the Chicago Art Institute have, as
part Of their work, produced mural
| paintings, under the direction of heir
lOI III the
schools. Many things have been
given. Incidentally. 1t is reported
that the Chicago Public School Art
Society is having a general house
cleaning at this time, taking out of
the schools some of those works of
art which have not upheld as high a
standard as was originally supposed
and substituting others.
Way out IN New Mexico a good
deal has been done in this direction.
Through the enthusiasm of the chair
man of the art committee of the State
Federation Of Women's Clubs, Mrs.
Osburn. original etchings, wood
block prints and the like have been
purchased by the schools for perma-
nent display.
Surprising as it may seem, it Is a
fact that the State of Maine and the
State of New York both will pay so
per cent of the cost of works of art
purchased for the schools, provided
they have the approval of the COM
missioner of education. In neither
State is a limit set to the amount.
At its fifteenth annual convention,
held in this city last May, the Amer
lean Federation of Arts inaugurated
a movement which had as its objec-
tive the placement of a work of art
in every classroom in the land. In
the late Autumn, announcement was
made that the Board of Education Of
Chicago had ruled that hereafter in
every new school building erected in
that city. space should be provided
in each classroom for the proper dis
play of a work of art and that in
addition, some place in the building
should be provided for exhibition pur-
poses. This action was so commenda-
BILE that the board of directors of the
American Federation of Arts voted to
send notification concerning 1t to all
boards of education in the United
States, and, securing the cooperation
of the Bureau of Education, sent a
circular letter to the secretaries of
1000 school boards, urging similar
action. In many instances this action
has been taken and a great wave of
interest in this matter seems to have
passed over the entire country.
At the suggestion of Randall Con-
don the whole last day of q conven-
ton of American public school
superintendents, held recently in
Cincinnati. was devoted to the edu-
cational mission of beauty, and at
that time 10000 reprints Of an edi-
torlal on relation of art to the public
schools, by, William McAndrew, were
distributed. Not only was that a
notable meeting, with such fnspira-
tional speakers as dorado Taft, the
distinguished sculptor, a real apostle
of art and now member OF our
National Art Commission, and others,
but evidently the result was to send
the superintendents to their several
homes with-as the old saying goes
"a bee in their bonnets."
Mr.. McAndrew in his notable edi-
torial makes plain the fact that art
in the schools is not merely the hang
ing of a picture on the wall, or the
placement of a piece of sculpture on
a pedestal, or even teaching the chill
dren to draw or to paint; that it is
much more than this, that 1t Is, as
Barrie once said, "the open ng Of the
eyes, of the children to the beauty
which is around them, and that it
includes not merely the decoration of
the walls, but the design and the
character of the school building it
self. TT seems logical" he says, ''to
argue that a nation founded to secure
to man life, liberty and the pursuit
Of happiness, a nation proposing to
secure this, as the founders proposed,
through public education, must make
much of art in its schools" The
theory that government. and-by an
American consequence-school are
instituted to give all men under 1t a
right to life, was never stressed in
any educational literature or conven-
tion, he says, until recent years, but
now, he says, he hears 1t even at the
crossroads. Every child has a right
to a full life, including the expanse
secured from health, beauty, music,
literature. nature, art. This is the
declared mission of the public
SCHOOL,
There are others, evidently, who
think the same way, for, according
to Mr. McAndrew, in Cincinnati, in
Winchester, in Evansville (Ohioa
and, let us hope, in many other
places, "there are some public
temples of teaching that preach
beauty to every passerby and promise
happiness to every child who comes
in Edward McClain of Greenfield,
Ohio, has given his town an art
center in the form of a public school.
in which are paintings, pictures,
statuary, tiles and vases Asked
what his idea is, he said: 81 under
stand the makers of America re-
peatedly. asserted that the object of
the concern they organized, entitled
the United States, was q happier
community than hitherto known. /
consider it the civic duty Of every
American to add to the happiness of
that part of the community nearest
to him the most that he is able. AS
the purpose of works of art is the
JOY and refreshment of man, it seems
to me that I should make use of this
means in our town in connection
with its schools"
X 4 r. X
It is a good thing, undoubtedly, to
nut nif.t ffres and OF her warlts .nf anrt