ART GALLERY SOCIETY

Otago Witness, Issue 3400, 14 May 1919, Page 6

ART GALLERY SOCIETY

ANNUAL MEETING AND CONVERSAZIONE.

' The annual meeting of the Dunedin Public ! Art Gallery Society was held in the Art ', Gallery Mali on the 6th. The hall was very | tastefully decorated with greenery and j autumn foliage, and the president (Mr A. j Bathgate) presided over a good attendance. i The lreasurer (Mr J. Loudon) presented ' the annual balance sheet. In doing so he | pointed out that on the assets side they had * buildings which cost approximately £6OOO, but which to-day were worth very much more. They had pictures valued at a very low conservative estimate at £6OOO, making in all £12,000 worth of assets. They had liabilities in the shape of outstanding debentures amounting to £1250, so that the surplus of assets over liabilities was between £9OOO and £IO,OOO. The debentures when the hall was handed over amounted to some £4ooo, but £3550 of that sum had been donated by generous well-wishers of the society or had been redeemed by the society itself from time to time. He thought they would agree that the position was highly satisfactory. He knew further that quite a number of the present debenture holders had made up their minds later on to donate them to tho society.—(Applause.) Their total revenue from all sources last year amounted to £992 17s od. The actual surplus for the year was £43 Is 2d. The aim of the trustees had been to have a sufficient surplus at the end of each year to add at least one good picture. Recently they had not been able to do that owing to the war. The rents from the letting of the hall in pre-war times amounted to something liko £3BO. During tho war period they fell to something liko £IBO, but now they anticipated that tho revenue would go back to something- like pre-war times. The Chairman'moved the adoption of the report and balance sheet, and gave a brief history of the origin of the public art gallery. The splend'd exhibition here of pictures of British artists at the time of the New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition was a revelation to many of our citizens, and the local papers were flooded with letters asking that some of these pictures be kept among tis. A few gentlemen interested in the matter convened a public meeting, and the matter was taken up with considerable enthusiasm, especially by a band of ladies. As a result sufficient money was raised for the purchase of the picture " Sunny Hours," by Water-low, and half a dozen others, including " Preparations for Market," by Stanhope Forbes —a picture which had since increased three or four-fold in value. At first the pictures were housed in a dingy room in the corporation buildings, but local artists raised a fund with which an iron shed was erected for them at the Museum, where they were housed for several years. Then Lady M'Lean was able to get from the Government a lease of the land on which their buildings now stood at a peppercorn rent, and steps were taken to erect the buildings. The money was raised partly by subscription, but mainly by debentures. Fortunately the venture proved a success, and the debenture debt had now been reduced to reasonable limits. During the war they had had to overdraw their account at the bank, but those times had fortunately passed. From the modest beginnings he had referred to the gallery had grown to a collection of very excellent pictures. On several occasions there had been exhibitions of pictures here for sale, and each time funds had been raised and some of the pictures purchased. Mr James Begg had presented them with a charming little bust. " Devotion," which Avas the only piece of statuary the trustees had acquired. There were in tho gallery casts of the late King Edward and of Queen Alexandra, but then' presence was more an evidence of the loyalty of the trustees than of any artistic merit. The City Council gave them £75 a year an J took back £SO in rates, so that all they srot from the corporation was a beggarly' £25. The Art Gallery wag really a municipal institution, because it was part cf the original arrangement that when everything was free of debt it was to be handed over to the city, and in his opinion the council should give at least £250 a year for its upkeep.— (Applause.) Their society had 48 members. Ho thought it was little short of a disgrace to Dunedin, which prided itself on being a centre of education and culture, that there should be only 48 citizens in its midst publicspirited enough to subscribe the half-guinea a year, which was the membership fee. Ml P. R. Sargood seconded the motion, and said that in a community of over 50,000 people who prided themselves on the beauty of their city and their educational facilities there should be a great deal more interest" shown in art than there was. Only £9 was subscribed by visitors, and 48 members was a very poor result to attain. Perhaps the rising generation thought it got more artistic enjoyment from the picture shows. The motion was carried.

On the motion of the Rev. G. H. Balfour the following retiring trustees were reelected :—Messrs J. Loudon, D. E. Theornin,

T. Brown, and D'Arcy Kaggitt Tho mover sajd that those who had founded tnis society and done so much to maintain it deserved! their best thanks and gratitude. ■ \\ B ?B'ff, the Mayor-elect, on whoso motion Mr I'oter Barr was unanimously reelected honorary auditor, said with reference to the matter of rates that he was not there to answer for the sins of city councillors. He would like to assist the society a great deal more if the City Council had the necessary balance, but if they remitted all the rates concerning which requests were made to them they would find the pressure somewhat hard. He believed that sooner or later Dunedin would bo a non-rated city, but he was afraid that that was in the dim future.

~M r .J, Kawcridge then delivered a thoughtful and choicely-expressed address on Art and Citizenship." Ho began by asserting that the Allies were saved by sentiment just as the Germans were lured to their downfall by the syren song of a materialists philosophy which taught that m international relations nothing . really counted but force and convenience But the immaterial forces had proved stronger than the material. > The beautiful was essentially superior to the merely useful And all things are beautiful if you have but eyes to see. ' A picture gallery was in the truest sense of tho word a place of holy worship. Art was the magk; jewel that transformed the commonplace, filled it with poetry, romance, and beauty, revealed its very soul. It was the most important factor in education, especially in tho education of a citizen. It was a strange paradox that in these days of shorter hours of labour life was much less leisurely than in tho old hard-working days. Citizens of Otago had shown themselves extremely generous m many ways,_ but they had never risen to their responsibilities towards art. The immaterial and spiritual side of life might bo useless in the sense that you could not eat it nor make money out of it, but it was the only side of life out of which you could make happiness and contentment—the only weapon with which to fight Minimalism, Maximalism, Chauvinism, Spartacism, Bolshevism, and all the other "isms" which to the yearning sentimental souls of restless weary men and women promised the millennium, but delivered anarchy, destruction, and death. Let them see to it that there was beauty in the souls of their citizens, otherwise the city beautiful 5 would remain in the future as it always has been in the past, a myth. During the evening excellent music was provided by Mr J. Flint's orchestra, and at the close of the formal part of the proceedings an enjoyable social hour was spent over supper and the inspection of tho pictures of the gallery.