LOAN COLLECTION.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20296, 4 May 1934, Page 7

LOAN COLLECTION.

Exhibitions Not in Public Galleries. ORGANISER'S REGRET. Regret that the loan collection of pictures now in New Zealand is not to be shown in public galleries was expressed this morning by Mr C. R. ( hisman, the organising director, who arrived from Dunedin, where the first showing of the collection opened on Wednesday. The pictures will come to Christchurch and will be on view in the Armagh Street gallery for about four weeks from June 14 Referring to the collection. Mr Chisman, who brought it out from England. said that the New Zealand Society of Artists, having become a .subscribing member of the Empire Art Loan Collections Society, had been able to secure the exhibition. The chairman of the Loan Collections Society was Mr J. B.sManson, director of the Tate Gallery in London, the society having been formed to send out loan collections for exhibition in the public galleries of New Zealand and Australia. The particular collection, which had been shown at Dunedin for the first time on Wednesday, would eventually go to Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide. It was hoped that the collection would be the forerunner of a series of different cstegories. “ At Dunedin the exhibition is being housed in the old Pioneer Hall, whereas the London committee visualised a showing in the public art gallery there," declared Mr Chisman. “ Personally, 1 am very disappointed with this because apart from the question of the safety of those treasures so generously lent by private collectors and public galleries the exhibition undoubtedly would look five times as good if spaciously displayed in a proper gallery setting. McDougall Gallery Ideal. “ For the same reason on behalf of the London committee I am disappointed that in Christchurch the collection will not be seen in the beautiful Robert McDougall Art Gallery, which would be simply ideal for the display of such a fine collection. We in London, somewhat mistakenly perhaps, had visualised something of the same conditions as pertain in the provincial towns and cities in England where in nearly every case the public gallery is subsidised and supported by the ratepayers. With a view to having frequent loan exhibitions, the estimates for the upkeep of those public galleries include provision for such exhibitions, which are supported by the rates and are held free of charge on the ground of their great educational value. “ Take the case of the McDougall Gallery. If you don’t have a fairly constant change of exhibition there, the majority of the people who have been to see the gallery and the collection a few times will not trouble to go again. Without having some provision for loan exhibitions in that way, the activities of that art gallery are bound to stagnate and eventually die. I would like to urge the municipal authorities to consider this very seriously with a view to stimulating interest in art in a similar way as is done in British and American galleries. With that aim in view I do hope that any future exhibitions the society can send out may be housed there rather than in the old gallery. Arranging For Visits. When the loan collection was shown in Christchurch he hoped the New Zealand Society of Artists -would find it possible to arrange for visits, especially classes from the schools, to have the opportunity of being conducted round the exhibition by a rota of artists competent to explain the tendencies of the collection, which covered the development of recent art in Great Britain over the last seventy years. A Shining Example. In conclusion. Mr Chisman said he endorsed the views *^ r S. F. Markham, who recently toured New Zealand on behalf of the Carnegie Corporation, that, taken head for head of popula tion and size, the galleries and collec tions of New Zealand were shining examples to many provincial towns at Home. In connection with the loan exhibition in Christchurch, it was pointed out this morning that, under the by-laws the Robert McDougall Art Gallery could not be opened at night, and, furthermore, no charge could be made for admission. It was stated that, without direct support from the municipal auth orities, it would be impossible to holJ the exhibition without making a charge.