POOR ATTENDANCES,

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 136, 10 June 1932, Page 3

POOR ATTENDANCES,

CITY ART GAI/LEKST,

GUIDE-LECTURER RECOMMENDED.

"The poor attendances to the Art Gallery during recent years have been most marked, and steps should be taken to bring about a revival of interest in the art collections of the city. Visitors from other parts of the Dominion and from overseas are fewer than in former yeare, but the gallery should attrart more citizens than it does," said the director, Mr. J. Barr, in a report presented to the City Council last evening.

The gallery was visited during the year by 64,107 persons, compared with (i.3,908 for 1030-3]. "The increase is very small considering the attraction which the galleries posses*," said the director, "and it certainly would have been less, but for the interest created by the addition of the new Mackclvie pictures made available in June. The occasional loan exhibitions have done something towards attracting art lovers of the city to come 'to the gallery, but other means will have to be adopted to bring about the already too long delayed revival of interest in the city's art treasures. As an immediate means to that end I suggest that a competent guide-lecturer should be appointed to undertake the work of lecturing upon art subjects and expounding the merits of the collections to interested groups, such as senior pupils in schools, art circles, and the general public."