ART IN WELLINGTON.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 17, 15 October 1907, Page 4

ART IN WELLINGTON.

When the. newspapers of Auckland, Christohurch, and Dunedin,; which have been offended by oiir recent series of friendly articles upon "SisterCities.,", determine upon retaliation through the medium of a scathing "writing down" of Wellington, they are certain to direct their heaviest, artillery at this city's want of enthusiasm for art. Nor will it be open to Wellington to complain about it. It is disappointing that the speeches at the opening of the current exhibition of the Academy of Fine Arts should have had'to be of the nature of ad miserieordiam appeals to the Government or the municipality or private enthusiasm to do something towards establishing a permanent art gallery worthy of the city's position. There appear to be two, very serious difficulties in the way of rescuing Art from her homeless and indigent condition in Wellington. In the first place there still lingers a certain amount of public doubt, and a greater quantity of official doubt, whether an art gallery can really be valuable, or, at best, anything better than a retreat for uncommon folk with unpractical ideas. Tet'the Corporation and-the Government have, no doubt whatever that a museum is a desirable object, well worth 'fostering from the public funds. " The educational value of a skeleton or a foreign animal is obvious," says the official view; "children/ may learn from it the wonders of nature, and then there is the assistance which a museum must lend'to the child's study of geography—a most important consideration. Where, on the other hand, is the value of-a picture? It does not. broaden a man's view; it does not give him clearer ideas concerning the people and tho fauna, the manners, and customs, of any country, civilised or barbarian." The second difficulty, arising from the first, is what the art lover regards as the hopelessness of having his energies seconded by. the people who hold the public purse. The first of the obstacles which wo have mentioned is, perhaps, not quite a real one. The public probably realises the value of pure art very much more keenly than corporations

and Governments imagine, and the official coldness towards art is in larger measure due to an official misreading of the popular wish than to the unresponsiveness of the average man to the appeal and the message of artistic things. As, for the second difficulty, it is worth while trying whether private effort cannot achieve results large enough-to carry the position by stimulating the keepers of the public purse to come to the rescue. Nor should it be lost sight of that the municipality,' and not the Government, is the quarter to which the Academy should look for assistance. We do not believe that the artistic sense of Wellington is at air correctly measured by the fact- that the Academy's permanent collection has to find a home in the' Railway's Building whenever an annual exhibition is being held.' The Academy has done much, but it can do more; to make a thorough test of the public's inclinations, and, until'it does so, it cannot hope to remove what has been, for many more years than it is comfortable to remember, a reproach to Wellington taste and a disheartening barrier to the progress of local artistic productiveness.