ARTIST & EDUCATIONIST

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 16, 3 February 1937, Page 6

ARTIST & EDUCATIONIST

Mr A Lismer to Visit New Zealand LECTURE:. DEMONSTRATIONS Artist and educationlst, Mr. A. mer, A .R.CA., O.S.A., will be a visitor to New Zealand about June of this year. As educational superviaor of the art gallery at Toronto, Canada, he has developed a missionary zeal foi advancing creative art among the people. His main purpose in coming to New Zealand is to take part in the New Education. Fellowship conference, but he will first spend some time lecturing and demonstrating. During the successful conference in Africa in 1934, Mr. Lismer so impressed the authorities there that he was asked to spend a-year assisting in reorganising and inspiring the art courses. He will arrive three weeks before the conference begins here in order to sea New Zealand 's art and to lecture on his work.

In the art gallery at Toronto Mr. Lismer goes further than the mere study of pictures. Musical evenings, listening to a great quartette, or a pianist of distinction, a group of folk singers, a famous interpreter of the dance form, a violinist, or a, fine singei aro all part of the annual programme, These musical evenings are often designed to interpret the music master9 who are contemporary with the painters represented on the wall. "The ear and the eye are thus brought inte new experiences -of the relation of all arts — the rhythm- of life expressed in sonnd and form," says • Mr. Lismer.

The Saturday morning classes of the Toronto Art Gallery are a definite part of the community 'life of the city and province. Children .from. city .and country- come . quite .voluntarily .and eagerly every week at nine in the morning and for vthree hours the beautif ul N galleries and ' corridors re-echo to the happy sounds of- about six hundred children varying in age from seven to fourteen years. In the summer vaca* tion hundredis.-.of .children are enrolled for seven or eight l weeks and " go to school" in. an .altogether novel fashion. In the • Children 's Art" Centre' children go . to. express . all. '.the 'thin'gs they. wish to.do.in drawing, handwork and"-drama. Every. age . level of , childhood : is given an- opportunity .to..fihd a means : of ' releasing .that -.exultant form, of ' creative' energy, that-. is called . to-day. " CHild Art. • Each -morning nursery groups meet under the care of young teachers -who understand children- and art, who are artists thetiselves. There is a definite relation -between • the things these young folk do and say between their play and action, and the ideas • they express - with paint and brush. To a child of three a drawing is an idea made objective and a complete image of .life, they are" definite and honest expressions of personality made long before speech becomes a familiar medium of communication. As the child progresses through the growing age levels, new ideas, new conceptions of the nature of the universe are interpreted rapidly into form and design. The social instincts of the young children are encouraged by the mutual partic%>abk>n in the produc-; tion of plays, in the creating and execution of a mural decoration scheme, or the illustrating of a book. In the print room upstairs a group of 10-year-olde make lino-ciits of little design forms and print these in intriguing pattern over cloth and silk, developing an orderly sense of design and method. A group- of older children design stage settings and costumes. Some make masks and [helmets and many draw and paint freely whatever ideas come into their' heads. - - -