CHILDREN'S ART

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23113, 11 August 1938, Page 17

CHILDREN'S ART

INTERNATIONAL DISPLAY OPENING AT AUCKLAND EDUCATIONAL METHODS An international exhibition of children s art was opened yesterday at the Auckland Art Gallery by Miss Ellen Melville, chairman of the Library Committee of the City Council, The largest section is devoted to New Zealand children s work, but exhibits from Great Britain, Australia, Canada, South Africa, India, the United States, Switzerland, Japan and Austria are also on display. Hie work is not limited to one type, and includes examples of original paintings, drawj ings, designs, linoleum cuts and crafti work, andjjhas been done bv children \ between the ages of four and 16. The exhibition was organised by a subcommittee of the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts, Wellington. "It is obvious to anyone who remembers the old days of art instruction in schools that a radical change lias taken place in the method of teaching art to children," said Miss Melville, "llie formal side to-day lias been subordinated to the creative urge which even the youngest children possess. Instead of discouraging this urge, it is being encouraged, and the gap from the crude to the more informed work is easily bridged by the wider methods of practice and instruction which are now being followed in schools." Mr. Ronald Hipkins, art master of the Wellington Teachers' Training College, who lias been associated with the exhibition in its tour through the Dominion, spoke briefly of the benefits to be gained by such a display. "The main interest of the exhibition is an educational one, but it should not be thought that it is only for school teachers," he said. "I hope that this is the beginning of an association between art bodies and schools in the Dominion."