THE ACADEMY OF ARTS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1570, 14 October 1912, Page 6

THE ACADEMY OF ARTS.

. OPENING DAYSTATE PROMISE RE GALLERY, MR. MASSEY'S 'HINT. Art' lovers spent a pleasant afternoon and evening among t'hepictures on-Satur-day, when tho yearly exhibition of tho New Zealand. Academy of Fine AtU was opened.' This is tho twenty-fourth of tho Academy's'exhibitions. During the afternoon tho presidont (Mr. H. ii. : Gore) addressed*tbe gathering. He, ilso' introduced tho Prime Minister (the Hon. W.- F. -Massey) who, after a brief speech,,declared t'lio exhibition open. V- The President. ■ In the course of his address Jlr. Goro stated that the presenco of the Prime Minister. was :an indication that public men looked- upon art as a thing of some educationall valuo, and this exhibition, he con- , tinued, was well; up to the mark touched .by previous one's. He; wished to draw attention to two pictures which !had just arrived from England and were gifts of (Mr.:; John ''Dutliie, of Wellington, whose i generosity and public-spiritedness were commendable indeed. This year's exhibition of students' work •-previously held in conjunction with tho general exhibition—had .been postponed ■until after the general exhibition closed. That plan would enahlo the students' Work'to be much hotter displayed, and " ! »-ould, also, be of convenience to the judges. Mr.".'.Goro.''then", passed "on to mention that; at present, the .Academy laboured ■under very great disabilities. Every year, .before it could hold its exhibition, the 'whole of the permanent collection of pictures had to be removed. The .collection Vas now worth well over ,£IO,OOO, and its removal was naturally expensive, besides which it v;as an operation which was attended by considerable risk. Usually tho pictures. "were, stored, after removal, and this year some had been lent to the Otago 'Art Society for its exhibition. The Acad- , emy no doubt,had an excellent collection of works) but it was in desperate straits for accommodation. The reason was that, last year, when tho Government announced its intention of making provision in the ipropo'sed Dominion Museum building for ian art gallery, the'society had devoted all .. 'its efforts to scouring pictures for it. A : 'gum of ,£SOOO had been collected from the ipublic, the Wellington City Council, had given ,£IOOO, and to'these sums thero had .been added the sum of ,£ooo, t which had been.received from the' Government two years ago. Almost the whole of the money had been,'devoted,,to securing pictures for the gallery, and consequently it had proved a' heavy disappointment to the society 'to find that the erection of the buildings *had been delayed. The society hoped that the' present Government would soon pro--ceed .with it—if, hot os originally planned, then.at' least in some form. .'" The Prime Minister. The -Prime -Minister congratulated the 'Arts Club upon tho success of its campaign'for; funds, and'remarked that, in this matter, as in others, the public of Wellington had responded .generously to the call. The City Council had also done : its duty to art, and the Government would do its duty. A promise had been fiiade by a former Government that a national; gallery would.be erected, and that promise would be redeemed. He could not/give way Cabinet secrets, but in the very-near, fjituro he might be able to tellv.them something, of great interest to them. . .There .was .iio doubt, he added, that, the present,building, .though it had been' very useful, was now far too small and afforded accommodation which wns altogether inadequate. He referred to the generosity of certain Wellington patrons of art, and-hoped that , other New Zealanders would emulate those donors.