ENCOURAGING ART.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 140, 15 June 1932, Page 3

ENCOURAGING ART.

TRAVELLING SCHOLARSHIP

ATM OF NEW ZEALAND SOCIETY.

The aims of the New Zealand Association of Art Societies were expounded by the president, Dr. E. B. Gunson, in opening the Manawatu Arts Society exhibition in Palmerston North. Dr. Gunson returned to Auckland this morning. In the newer centres, he said, the association was encouraging the showing of the good work of the larger galleries. The association had been formed to sponsor art culture, which was national in its objective. Such an exhibition a*s that at Palmerston North could come under that heading. "We are trying also to put <>n record a li>t of national portraits in public and private collections, together with a brief biography of the artist," said Dr. Gunson. "We will thus have the means of securing a record of New Zealand work. We are hoping to establish a fund to enable us to award a travelling scholarship for art for three years. For a start the award will be made every three years, and then as funds are augmented and the quality of art becomes higher, it is hoped to be able to award a scholarship annually."

Concerning the exhibition Dr. Gunson said this morning that there were practically r>oo pictures hung, the work of New Zealand contemporary artists, besides 20 pictures from the permanent collection at Wellington, The pictures were shown in the premises of the A. atid P. Association, which had put at the disposal of the society the main hall at the entrance to the grounds. The New Zealand association had helped the Palmerston North exhibition inasmuch as the members of the society paid the cost of the transit of their own pictures-1