AN ILLUSTRATED MONTHLY MAGAZINE for THOSE Entered at the Post Office at Worcester, Mass., as second class matter, August 17, 1903 Editorial: Fads, Ideals for the Year, Cover Stamps, etc. Editor Helpful Correspondence School Arts Guild The Arts Library Reliable Advertisements Trade News Published by THE DAVIS PRESS, Worcester, Mass. COPYRIGHT, 1909, BY THE DAVIS PRESS. ALL RIGHTS RESErved. BULLETIN With unusual satisfaction we announce the decision of Mr. Luther W. Turner of The Hill School, Pottstown, Pa., to give to The School Arts Book the results of his experiences with Dr. Grenfel this summer in formulating a plan for manual arts instruction for the people of Labrador. We are happy to be able to announce also a series of articles on Pottery Processes by Mr. Cheshire L. Boone, of Montclair, N. J., our foremost advocate of clay as an art educational medium, and one who has proved that he can "deliver the goods." The October number will contain, among other good things, an illustrated account of a novel and most successful Experiment in Picture Study, by Prof. Walter Sargent of the University of Chicago, with plates loaned by the Boston Museum of Fine Arts; an original method of studying The Home Beautiful, by Miss Louise K. Morss, of the Normal Model School, Hyannis, Mass.; and a series of rare White Silhouettes from Chiseled Stone, with an explanatory note by Mr. Bunkio Matsuki of Boston. Vol. IX I SEPTEMBER, 1909 PUBLIC ART EDUCATION* No. I WANT to speak here to-night on behalf of art education in general, in our public schools, colleges, and universities, and on the objects which such art education ought to have in view. Massachusetts, to be sure, has first recognized the need of art education, and first maintained a normal art school on state resources; but this School has never been adequately supported; and in general, drawing, painting, and modeling have never obtained their adequate places, in either our elementary or our secondary schools, or in our colleges. The rich field is open before us, and has never been adequately cultivated. Let us consider together, therefore, the possibility of cultivating in our schools the artistic faculties, and some of the objects of that cultivation. I suppose the first object is to provide the training of eye and hand which artistic study can give for great numbers of youth who will otherwise grow to manhood and womanhood without getting any accurate conception of good seeing and touching. Now, that falls in well with a strong tendency of education in general in our country to-day. Much more attention is now being paid than was paid fifteen years ago to the training of the senses. We have learned that the senses are not inevitably accurate in their testimony. We have learned that the senses are capable of illusions of all sorts. We know that in the arts and trades of to-day accuracy in the testimony of the eye and the working of the hand is found to be an essential element of success; and accordingly throughout our education *An address by Dr. Charles W. Eliot, delivered at the annual meeting of the Alumni Association of the Massachusetts Normal Art School, Boston, April 16th, 1909. Reprinted from the school magazine, the Centre of Vision. from beginning to end, from the kindergarten through the university, more attention is being given than formerly to the training of the senses. The medical education of to-day is widely different from that of forty years ago in this respect; and in the industrial education, which we are beginning to develop, much higher regard is being paid to the training of the senses than used to be the case. Now, if art education were sufficiently attended to through all our schools and in all our colleges, there would gradually grow up in American society considerable numbers of persons whose artistic sense had been somewhat trained. What would be the consequence of that improvement? The consequence would be that there would go down through the subsequent generations an inherited faculty in art, an inherited sensibility to artistic impressions, and a new capacity for enjoyment. I have personally known a mature woman who had the faculty of sketching with pencil and brush, and who took the trouble to interest her children in sketching; and now I have seen the children of these children develop the same faculty. This artistic sense and this capacity for enjoyment have been possessed already by three generations, and their lives have been greatly enriched by the possession. From that one woman started this potent stream, potent in cultivating the accurate use of the senses, potent, also, in supplying great elements of enjoyment all through life. This is the first, and perhaps the most precious result that ought to flow from the adequate development of art instruction in American schools and colleges. The artistic faculties of human nature were neglected by our Puritan ancestors. When I was a boy and young man, skill in drawing and painting, or in music, was always referred to as an accomplishment. It was not a necessary part of education. It was a frill or non-essential addition to education; and, |