THE SCHOOL OF ART.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2462, 25 February 1882, Page 3

THE SCHOOL OF ART.

As will have been seen by advertisement it is intended to open the first term of the School of Art, under the auspices of the Board of Governors of the Canterbury College, on Wednesday next. The building selected for the purpose is that formerly occupied by the Girls’ High School, which when the improvements and alterations suggested by Mr Blair, the master, are carried out, will be fairly well suited for the purpose. These alterations are for the most part intended to improve the light, which in some of the rooms is not as at present designed suitable for art work. Though established as a school of art, the Governors have decided most wisely that the school shall also be an adjunct, and a very valuable one, to the room at the Museum recently devoted to technological science, the models of machinery, &c., therein being thus utilised to a high degree in the improvement of the education of our artisans, engineers. &0,, in their various branches of industry. To this end lectures have been arranged for in connection with the school in elementary and advanced mechanical drawing, and elementary and advanced building construction. These are in addition to the ordinary course of a purely art school, and will no doubt be largely taken advantage of by many in the building, engineering, and other mechanical branches of industry. In the particular branch of building, for instance, the following summary ot the lectures proposed to be given will afford some idea of the scope of the School of Art in this respect. In elementary building construction the lectures will be six in number, the subjects being as follows: Brickwork —Bond, parts of a wall, footings, courses, corbelling, wood built into walls, wall plates, lintels, wood bricks, plugs, &c, Masonry—Ashlar and rubble work, joints, dowels, metal cramps, lead plugs, dressings, quoins, courses, copings, cornice with blocking course, balustrade, or parapet. Carpentry —Joints, lapping, fishing, scarfing, halving, notching, cogging, mortise and tenor joints heelstraps, shoes, and socket pieces. Joinery —Mouldings ; torus, ovolo, ogee, andbolection mouldings; joins, dowelled, grooved, dovetailed and mitre; panelling, square, moulded and raised. Notes on Materials—Limes, mortars, and cements; fat, poor, and hydraulic limes ; natural and artificial cements, characteristics of good bricks, characteristics and practical classification of stone, granite, and other igneous rocks, slate, sandstone, limestone ; natural bed, artificial stone, agents which destroy, and preparations which preserve stone. Notes on Materials (continued) Wood, characteristics of good timber, decay and preservation, paints, &c.; strength of timber, iron, and the metals used in building ; safe strains for cast and wrought iron.

In the advanced classes there will be twelve lectures, the subjects being as follows Brickwork—Damp courses, hollow walls, jambs, arches, centreing for arches, chimneys, arrangement of flues, brick drains and sewers. Masonry Arches, stone stairs; square, spandril and hanging steps; straight, doglegged and circular stairs ; evils arising from ashlar-faced walls. Beams, &c.—Built-up beams, trussed and iron girders, bressummers and cantilevers, consideration of strains. Floors —Single, double and framed flooring; fireproof floors. Partitions—Quartered and brick-nogged. Boofs (timber and iron) Couple, couple close, collar beam, king and queen post roofs, strain on the different parts, strength and proportion, Stairs and handrailing. Doors—Lodged, framed, panelled and folding. Windows—Solid frame, cased frame with double hung sashes, casement windows. Skirtings— Architraves and linings, shutters, folding and sliding. Skylights and lanterns, ventilators. On the ground floor the first three rooms on the right hand are to be applied to the use of Mr Blair, whose offices and work-room are in this flat. Here also is the elementary room for the delivery of lectures and the working of students. The desks are fitted with slots, to hold the board upon which the students place their paper, having the copy before them on the brass rails. This room is fitted to accommodate 110 students, the male and female divisions being kept separate by a curtain drawn across. At the end of the room is a large black board worked by means of a pulley, which enables the lecturer to demonstrate to a large extent what he wishes to convey to the students. On the occasion of evening lectures the room is thrown into one. The first upstairs room is devoted to the advanced classes for building construction. In this room the appliances are remarkably effective, and there is a large number of models, freehand copies, &c. The black boards in this room run in grooves, so that if need be both can be combined. On the walls of this room are models illustrative of the orders of architecture, In the room opposite are the models for life studies, in which the windows will have to be altered so as to obtain a south light. Here are a large number of models from the life, and anatomical engravings. In this room there is also a very ingenious apparatus for enabling the lecturers to demonstrate model drawing, which is an excellent method of imparting instruction through the eye as well as by the hand. The lavatory and adjoining room are to be thrown into one for the purpose of a modelling room. There will be in connection with the school lectures on botany as applied to art. The contiguity of the gardens to the School of Art will afford an excellent opportunity of studying the forms, Ac., of plants, 11. has been arranged that on every Friday morning at eleven o’clock students who are work ing in Stage Y. will attend a short lecture on “ Botanical drawing and plant form as applied to Art.” Fresh specimens of a plant then in flower will be supplied at each lecture for the use of students ; it will be drawn in detail on the blackboard; its botanical characteristics pointed out, with suggestions for ornamental arrangement. The subjects dealt with in the course of the luotures will be as follows :—“ The position of (:ho plant in the vegetable kingdom.” “Th<! stem; its form and branching.” “ Form of the leaves; the stalk and its insertion, stipules, spines and tendrils,” “ The leaf and Siower bud.” “ The fully expanded flower.* and its parts ; the fruit.” “The plant applied to design.” Altogether the School of Art promises to supply a want long felt here of instruction to the mechanics and artisrms, and, under the able guidance of Mr Blf.ir, no doubt it will ' have a useful career befo ;e it.