especially those who believe in the use of a schoolhouse as a centre of the intellectual life of a community. Existing Conditions. Happily, in this small city there were no iron-clad, rock-ribbed traditions about art being too fine a thing for the daily life of the people, nor was the growth of this movement blighted in the bud by those fixed standards of taste that have not changed since the Italian Renaissance. There was, however, in this people a conscious human desire for beauty, for happiness, and for some greater degree of satisfying perfection in their community life. The leaders in this art movement realized that no institution in their midst was endeavoring to meet this need and set about heroically to supply the deficiency. Drawing was taught in the Richmond schools as well as in most towns, and probably better. This offered training for the hand and eye and some knowledge of the principles and the history of art, but it did not give that which is of greater spiritual value to the individual or the community, the opportunity to enjoy and appreciate works of art, and in their actual presence to acquire higher standards of taste and the refinement of the emotions which an intimate acquaintance with art gives. Efforts of Art Association.-The efforts, then, of this Art Association were directed toward supplying to the established drawing work in the schools an appreciative side by adding to the annual school exhibit the best obtainable works of art in oil and water-color painting, sculpture, arts and crafts, etc. Community interest, very wisely considered more important in the beginning than standards of taste, was obtained by borrowing for the exhibitions every picture, every piece of handicraft, every curio having any artistic merit, and some that had none, from the citizens of the town, and also by exhibiting the work of local artists and craftsmen. The work was begun in the democratic spirit of William Morris, who did not want art for the few any more than education or freedom for the few. Thus always the doors of this art exhibit, held in a public schoolhouse, were open free to every one in the community. And thus early was here realized the social-centre ideal. Expenses. The expenses of these free annual art exhibits were met by the fifty-cent dues of a large membership and five-dollar subscriptions from interested citizens, called "sustaining members," made up from that class of business men who everywhere are loyal to all movements for the good of their town. The school board assisted by furnishing the building, lights, and janitor service. After seven years of successful work, the importance of the art exhibits established, the common council of the city began annually to appropriate one hundred dollars from the city treasury to the expense fund, which necessarily increased as the size and quality of the exhibits increased. Schoolhouse for Art Gallery. For fourteen years the exhibitions were held in June, during the last week of the school year. The centrally located departmental school building, where only a few final examinations were held, was turned over to the Art Association, and by the removal of all desks, closing of unnecessary windows, putting up of suitable backgrounds this building of twelve rooms and two large corridors was magically transformed into an art gallery where it was possible to display works of art attractively. Early Exhibits.-Beginning in the easiest as well as the most logical and effective way, by exhibiting all that was of local production or interest, these annual exhibitions were gradually extended to include the work of the artists of the State, and prizes were offered for the best local and State work, awards being made by a competent jury of artists living outside the State. In this way poor work was gradually eliminated without offence to prevailing standards of taste. Unconsciously the public was educated to better standards by the pervasive influence of accredited work. With a thoroughly aroused community interest it was easy, after a few years, to enlarge the exhibits by the addition of representative work from the foremost American painters, sculptors, and craftsmen. Increased possibilities for getting the best works of art were obtained and a great reduction in cost was made by inducing other cities in the State to join in a circuit with Richmond to undertake an exhibit and share the general expense of handling it. Attendance. These exhibitions were attended by fifty per cent of the population, including the public-school children under the guidance of their teachers, who had first visited the exhibit with the supervisor of drawing. The children and teachers of three parochial schools of the town also attended. Visitors were attracted from all the near-by towns to this annual "democratic festival," as the exhibit was called by a noted publicist. Limitations. After fourteen years of normal growth this art movement was thoroughly established in the hearts of the citizens of the town and regarded by school officials as a legitimate part of the year's work for the children, but it had three serious limitations: First, the exhibits remained too much a matter of mere entertainment to satisfy the leaders in the move ment, who regarded them as an earnest effort to promote genuine art education and culture in the community. Second, the time at the end of the school year left but little opportunity for the teacher to talk over the pictures with the children and fix permanent ideals in their minds. Third, there was no suitable place to display the permanent collection of paintings which the Art Association was gradually acquiring by special gift and by purchase with the Reid purchase fund of five hundred dollars given by a former Richmond citizen. In other words, all the Richmond art lovers needed was an art gallery where their collection might hang permanently and where there would be time and opportunity for works of art to make a more lasting impression both on the children. and citizens. Gallery in High School. Here, again, the inevitable happened. The seeming miracle of a real art gallery in a high school building followed, naturally, the continuous development of art culture in this city. After the school officials and Art Association had cooperated in holding free art exhibits for fourteen years the school board deemed them of such important educational value as to justify including an art gallery in the new high school then being built. This building was designed by William B. Ittner, of Saint Louis, to whose imagination the unusual feature of an art gallery at once appealed as a suggestive motif to include in the façade of the building, with what effective charm the accompanying photograph shows. Schoolhouses as near as may be ought always to be beautiful and to provide such conditions, at least, in our country that architects need not follow traditions but may in |