THE ART GALLERY SITE.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 19258, 13 March 1928, Page 11

THE ART GALLERY SITE.

1 wires or teb mss. gift is so handfora Christchurch resident en to seem to be the mouth may appear to ouS- Mr MeDougall will, I K^ ot think that the suggestionungracious; he will 1 i tit is n" B3, only in order that JUf'kMt use s!,ould be made of his It is this: that the acquire the power, and obW? «nnev (if money is necessary), **r&W '""It "ght in sites are available. There is Hon of Victoria square which rta Band Rotunda; there is the yjjf? jontains the statue of the c 1 could, without any loss of j be moved into the rotunda ltfs?Aere'is the site in Cambridge Colombo street and there is Latimer square; Cranmer square. are two reasons why the Galbe best placed in the City W* in the Gardens. The first is, would be better, from every f T j eW , to have it in the City, r a '°,,cßaible to everybody, than out m city—and the Gardens, close arc to the Square, are • nut'of the citizens' beat. The ffy reason is of a different kind. ■this. - For far too long there ( has that art galleries are collections of beautiful J?* which must not be profaned (in rSnBOn as well as the etymological tfoanee of the word), but which as it were, enshrined. This ?£» is', behind the idea that the Serial Column ought not to be Streets of the common 'Stoit in some quiet place apart, n&'jiljnefeeling which insists on for Sunday, and JMighis as the best worshipper [ S%es only on Sunday, and then, j,jj lis special ehurch-poing clothes, Siot the plain citizen who slips in ( ealy" service in his everyday Lots. Art will never become a livKji formative force until it benatural and familiar thing for Simon man. To Bay that one must jiV Gardens mood to the new Art Sgiisfetiiiiik, to perpetuate the STa&kdyilmost ingrained, that art r«D«tionrare things to be approached {Soething like Old Testament It-is as if one were to say that read except in Sjjariilac'es or in a particular dress, times. flu (Sly las an extraordinarily line irmortimity to. break down this idea. &Va,fcjely-desigiied Art Gallery in £Bp«fta«fc-a. plan which Mr McWallV "generosity makes easily Arable.-- Everyone could, and most Lis wonld, make the Gallery a place Lfiequent'.viaits, to their great benebenefit of New Zealand added to his mat'genetosity, as you point out, by stipulations. He has kiir ira and that preferfflte if if « . unalterable, must, of mutm; settle-the site. And the site he prefers is a very nico one. But if he xedd consider as an alternative the more central sites, the City would, m yeats to come, have extra reasons for tks ereat-gratitude which it must feel W, » f^^7 T ™OBSEETEE. March 12th, 1928,