The School of Art

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22195, 11 September 1937, Page 14

The School of Art

The conditions under which the work of the School of Art is done, as they were described in an article in " The Press " yesterday, are of course perfectly well known to the governing body, the Canterbury College Council, which has long possessed a site for a new school and desired to use it. But the council cannot proceed without a substantial grant from the Government. These conditions are known, also, to the Department of Education, which annually sends inspectors—of the.technical and manual training division —to the school; but this is not quite the same thing as their being known, through personal observation, to the Minister for Education. It would be interesting to learn how long it is since a Minister visited the school. It is interesting to conjecture how much longer the school would remain as and where it is, if Mr Fraser were to walk through it and see for himself what difficulties have to be contended with. They can be summarised very shortly. The School of Art labours under all the handicaps of a building which never was a school of art, is not now, and is deteriorating faster than it can be improved for the purpose. If Mr Fraser saw this, and if he were to take an independent artist and an independent architect with him he could verify his own impressions on the spot, it is not easy to doubt that he would move for plans, estimates, and a sufficient grant without delay. The chairman of the Canterbury College Council, Mr C. T. Aschman, has explained lately that the Minister desires to receive from the university councils throughout New Zealand a programme of their needs in something like an agreed order of urgency. Canterbury College has claims to put forward, all of them urgent, for a new library, for the Canterbury Museum, and for the School of Art; and the list of its urgent needs is not even then complete. But the danger is that, being put forward by the same body, one claim may prejudice another. It is to be hoped that no chance will be lost to impress upon the Government the fact that, though made by the same body, these claims are made for distinct institutions and should be weighed independently, as if they were made by three distinct authorities. The province should not be in fear of hearing from the Government that, because " Canterbury " College" has been granted this or that, it must wait for the other.