Schools of Art

SCHOOLS OF ART.) Groups Associated with Museums.—Reference has been made to the development of art museums through the instrumen tality of art associations. The individual members of the Metro politan Museum of Art, New York, now number more than 13,25o. The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, formed in the same year (187o) as the Metropolitan Museum, likewise depends to a great extent on its supporting membership, while the Art Institute of Chicago (1879), more than 17,000 members, is essentially a people's institution. The Toledo Museum of Art (19oi) was long supported by an associate membership; the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy (1862) is the parent of the Albright Art Gallery; the Cincinnati Museum Association (1881) acquired a gallery through gifts in 1887 and is still supported by private con tribution; the Art Association of Indianapolis (1883), 919 mem bers, acquired a gallery, now the John Herron Art Institute, in 1902; and the Minneapolis Society of Fine Arts (1883) erected in 1911 a building, now the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, with which the Friends of the Institute (1922) co-operate in building up its collections and broadening its influence. Various "Friends of Art" groups have been formed in recent years; perhaps the most notable is the Friends of American Art, Chicago (Iwo) ; the art department of the Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, has an auxiliary circle, Friends of Pittsburgh Art; the Baltimore Museum has the Friends of Art in Baltimore, and the municipally sup ported Detroit Institute of Art has an Art Founder's Society. The Newark Museum Association (1909) has 1,65o members. The Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego, Calif., is the child of the Fine Arts Society of San Diego (1925), 1,021 members. Art museum directors have organized in two groups : those east of the Rocky mountains in the Association of Art Museum Directors (1916), those on the Pacific coast in the Western Association of Museum Directors (1921). There is also a national organization, the American Association of Museums, Washington, D.C. (1907). (See MUSEUMS AND ART GALLERIES.) Art and Industry.—Probably the first organization in the United States to recognize the need of relating art to industry was the Cooper Union, New York (1854). The handicrafts have largely been fostered by societies especially organized for that purpose, such as the Society of Arts and Crafts of Boston (1897), 1,35o members, which has set a high standard of endeavour and has maintained a sales room most successfully for many years in Boston and in recent years in New York. Similar, the Detroit

Society of Arts and Crafts (1906), with over i,000 lay and pro fessional members, has brought to America notable works by foreign craftsmen. More intimately associated with industrial art are such organizations as the Association of Arts and In dustries of Chicago, or the Art in Trades Club, New York (5906), made up of 525 men engaged in some form of art in industry. The Art Directors' Club, New York (192o), 200 mem bers, is partly social but is intended to improve art products. The 175 members of the Business Men's Art Club of Chicago (192o) turn to art for recreation rather than as a vocation. The Graphic Sketch Club of Philadelphia is similar in purpose.

Civic Associations.

The American Civic Association (1904), a national organization with headquarters at Washington, D.C., and several hundred affiliated organizations throughout the coun try, embraces city planning, village improvement, protection of scenic beauty and safeguarding of highways in its objectives. Somewhat akin in purpose is the American Society of Landscape Architects (1899), 215 members, with headquarters in Boston, whose chief aim is the support of professional ideals in the prac tice of landscape architecture as an art, and whose concern is mostly that of design in city and regional planning and the design of private and institutional parks and grounds. There are also numerous art commissions such as, for example, the National Commission of Fine Arts, Washington, D.C. (191o), appointed by the President with the consent of Congress and comprising an advisory body of experts, serving without pay, to which are re ferred designs for public buildings, monuments, improvements of public lands, etc. ; the Art Commission of the City of New York (1898) and the Art Jury, Philadelphia (1907), intended to saf e guard municipal authorities against artistic blunders and secure the maximum beauty for their respective cities; the Municipal Art Society of New York (1892), I,000 members, a private organi zation for the development of civic art ; and the Community Arts Association of Santa Barbara, Calif. (192o), 1,200 members.