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THE FUNCTION OF A SCHOOL OF ART IN THE LIFE OF 

 THE COMMUNITY. 



BY 



O. J. P. Oxley, A.R.C.A. (London), 

 Art Matter, The Technical College, Durban. 



Read July 13, 1921 



This paper is in the nature of a plea for a more universal and 

 a fuller recognition of art education in a practical sense, and to 

 show the relationship which ought to exist between a school of art 

 and the life of the town in which it is situated. Where art is 

 concerned, educationalists have always viewed the subject from the 

 narrow and the least profitable standpoint. Draughtsmanship and 

 painting have almost excluded other forms of instruction, and it 

 is owing to this limited outlook that art in educational systems. 

 has received little or no consideration. Until this view is altered 

 there is little hope, or reason, for us to expect any improvement. 

 To-day in England, France and America a wider and more liberal 

 type of instruction is finding favour in all departments connected 

 with education. It is necessary for authorities to make up their 

 minds as to the kind of education they intend to work for ; and 

 if thev really mean to regard the school as the place where a 

 beginning is to be made for the pursuit of truth, a clear and sincere 

 outlook is essential, for education is just sincerity, and one must 

 know a great deal to be sincere. 



The Head of a school of art should be possessed of a good 

 knowledge of the educational nature of, and forms of instruction 

 in art. By virtue of his training and position, the head should 

 be consulted on all matters of art training, and he should have 

 control of all art instruction in the town. By proper organisation 

 there should be an unbroken chain of instruction from the kinder- 

 garten to the end of the secondary school period, which should, if 

 necessary, be continued in the school of art or training college. 

 By the linking up of the primary and secondary schools with the 

 school of art, the whole of the instruction would receive a wider 

 outlook, and the prevailing idea that the drawing-board, paper and 

 pencil aie the only essentials for this subject, may be gradually 

 changed. The development of appreciation is of more value ulti- 

 mately than skill in drawing, and our future education should aim 

 at inculcating the appreciation of beauty, of art and craftsman- 

 ship. It is the eye, and not the brain, that first awakes the 

 passion for the beautiful. It is the business of the school of art 

 to open up all avenues of beauty, and this fact should never be 

 lost sight of. 



In what direction other than the drawing up of the various 

 syllabuses connected with the curricula of the primary and 

 secondary schools can the school of art help the schools of the 

 town ? The art master is rarelv consulted about the painting and 



