ENCOURAGEMENT OF ARTISTS

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27359, 26 May 1954, Page 10

ENCOURAGEMENT OF ARTISTS

Special Organisation Suggested PROVISION OF N.Z. EMPLOYMENT The New Zealand artist and designer is being starved of encouragement, and the New Zealand public is being deprived of the valuable contribution artists can make to the common good, according to Mr E. J. Doudney, senior lecturer in sculpture at the Canterbury University College School of Art, and Mr Russell Clark, senior lecturer in fine arts at the school. They propose that an organisation should be established to facilitate the employment of painters, sculptors, and designers, and to help to raise the general cultural level. In a circular which has been sent to Parliamentary, church, business, local body and cultural leaders, they suggest that the scheme could be financed with Government co-opera-tion by the proceeds from a tax of Id a pint on beer, as in Denmark, or 1 per cent, on the Totalisator Agency Board’s turnover. Other methods suggested are by Government vote, a sales tax of Id in the £, and a levy of i per cent, on the costs of Government or local civic buildings, the proceeds to be used for sculpture or murals to decorate the buildings concerned. Additional methods suggested are a voluntary discount by shops, art unions, street collections, or voluntary subscriptions to a benefactors’ fund whereby the benefactor nominates the object towards which the endowment will be used.

“While scholarships are already available in New Zealand which make it possible for students to study overseas, there is practically no employment for them, as artists, when they return,” says the circular. “The majority become lost to the country, as creative artists, by being forced into the teaching or commercial professions.” Functions of Suggested Council Messrs Doudney and Clark suggest that the name of the proposed organisation should be the New Zealand Arts Council, or the Arts Council of New Zealand. It should combine, they say, some of the chief functions in New Zealand of such British organisations as the Arts Council of Great Britain, the Council of Industrial Design, and the Royal Fine Arts Commission. Representatives of the Government, the churches, art societies, art schools, galleries, the press, chambers of commerce and manufacturers’ associations could form the council, with offices in the four main cities. Ten principal objects for the council are suggested. They are:— To encourage artists by purchasing works and by greatly increasing the number of works commissioned for the decoration of buildings and gardens (particularly schools, hospitals, hotels, and Government buildings). To attempt to raise the standard of popular appreciation and the general cultural level. To help to build a reputation abroad of high cultural attainment and taste. To acquire suitable contemporary works of art from abroad. To enrich New Zealand’s permanent collections and to provide travelling exhibitions.

To organise exhibitions of New Zealand works of art and industry abroad. To award good design stars to approved industrial and commercial products produced and designed in New Zealand. To publish a design and fine art periodical. To build suitable studios and studioflats, to be let at a low rental to bona fide professional artists. To advise and bring together artists and clients. Methods of Employment As examples of the methods by which artists could be employed, the circular mentions:— (1) Regular “recording New Zealand” commissions similar to those “recording Britain”; (2) The extensive use of sculpture on parks and public buildings; (3) The extensive use of murals inside . public buildings; (4) The institution of a national picture and sculpture lending library; (5) The employment of official “peace” artists. “Surely,” say Messrs Doudney and Clark, “what we can do in war, we should be able to do better in peace;” and

(6) The use of industrial design consultants on all Government-made or specified articles, furniture, or interior design. Copies of the circular have been sent to the Prime Minister (Mr Holland), the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Nash), the president of the New Zealand Institute of Architects, the Mayor of Christchurch (Mr R. M. Macfarlane, M.P.), the Canterbury Manufacturers’ Association, the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce, the Bishop of Christchurch (the Rt. Rev. A. K. Warren), the Dean of Christchurch (the Very Rev. Martin Sullivan), Mr A. McLagan, M.P., Sir John McKenzie, Sir James Fletcher, the Rector of Canterbury University College (Dr. H. R. Hulme), the Rector of Auckland University College (Mr K. J. Maidment), Mr J. L. Hay, and architects, artists, and other citizens in the four main centres. <r-