Better Promotion Of Art Urged

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32120, 16 October 1969, Page 14

Better Promotion Of Art Urged

Art in New Zealand was on the threshold of an exciting new era and art organisations throughout the country should see they ■were promoting it in the best professional manner, said Mr J. Collins when he opened the fourth summer show of the Canterbury Society of Arts in its gallery last night.

Mr Collins ,is the Government’s nominee on the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council. He said that in his travels throughout New Zealand he had been puzzled and disappointed that the methods of promotion of art were limited. If the arts were to be fostered in New Zealand, they had to be brought to the attention of people on the widest possible basis. He urged art organisations to dismiss the “exclusive club approach” and to strive for a wider presentation.

New Zealand was rich in good promotion and marketing methods and art bodies should get the assistance of professionals to communicate and present their medium to the public, he said. Earlier the society’s president (Mr S. E. Mair) said that in the year to September 30 the society had held 46 separate exhibitions in the gallery. Before introducing Mr Collins, Mr Mair said he would like to think the Queen Elizabeth Arts Council would give a little more help to the visual arts.