A Carnegie Grant

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21792, 26 May 1936, Page 10

A Carnegie Grant

The Carnegie Corporation’s approval of a scheme for distributing £ 10,000 among New Zealand art g ileries and museums is satisfactory news. This grant is probably in the nature of a test, and if it is properly used there should be a reasonable chance of obtaining other useful grants later on. The establishment of an education service for schools at museums in each of the main centres is dependent in part upon the co-operation of the Government, which is expected to assist in the choice and payment of special education officers who will have charge of the work. The most interesting part of the scheme, however, is the inauguration of an exchange system covering museum and art collections in New Zealand, Australia, the United States, and Great Britain. This should be specially important in art, for it will provide New Zealanders with an opportunity of seeing examples of the painting done in these countries. New Zealand art

at the present time is in need of the revitalisation that would come from closer contact with the art of other countries. The exchange of museum exhibits must be interesting, but it is not as necessary or urgent as the need for new knowledge in art. Of the grant £2OOO has been allocated for the purchase of reproductions of the work of various schools of painting. With this money a first-rate collection could be obtained, and it is to be hoped that enlightened liberalism will be displayed in the choice of the pictures. For even the most elementary knowledge of painting it is necessary to have knowledge of work which the more cohventional would still regard as revolutionary, even though it has now become part of the body of classical painting. If the collection of reproductions is to be of true educational value it must have a modern bias. The present intention is that the collection should be housed at the National Gallery, Wellington. but sections will be available for loan to other public galleries. Such a system is better than nothing, and one possible good :s that the visit of loan exhibitions will encourage the various centres to build up print collections of their own. The value of pictures cannot be assimilated at a glance, or even in an afternoon; they have to seep into the mind through the eye, and since full appreciation may come slowly, it is necessary to have an exhibition available for study over a long period. The main value of the Carnegie grant is that it may persuade New Zealanders to do lather more for their own museums and art galleries than they have done in the past.