Visual Arts Society

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29822, 15 May 1962, Page 4 (Supplement)

Visual Arts Society

By

TOM ESPLIN

TN 1951 in Dunedin two meetings were convened by the Adult • Education Department of the University of Otago with a view to the formation of a society that would stimulate general interest in the visual arts, and in particular the art o/ industrial design. From these two meetings early in 1952 the Visual Arts Association was founded, and at its inception there was issued a short pamphlet drawing attention to its aims.

The association was fortunate in obtaining the services of my predecessor Mr J. E. P. Murphy, the lecturer in design at the School of Home Science, who became its first chairman.

It was not long before the association mounted its first exhibition—a display of contemporary tableware which was

shown in the Dunedin Public Library. Nearly all the exhibits were obtained by the courtesy of local business houses, while, the furniture used in the exhibit was made in New Zealand. This exhibition sets the pattern for many future exhibitions; for by such means the association hoped to carry out its intention of raising the standards of appreciation in the design of all articles of common use, by pointing out the opportunities which exist to buy intelligently in the city. Perhaps the ambitions of the association can best be seen by a quotation from the 1952 pamphlet: “The terms of reference of the Visual Arts Association are very similar to those of the Council of Industrial Design of Great Britain even though the association is entirely a voluntary body.