Clearing-house For Dominion Art in London

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 64, 7 June 1927, Page 12

Clearing-house For Dominion Art in London

Author Explains An Ambitious Project CUTTING OUT GRUB STREET No more “mute, inglorious Miltons” need drag out disappointed lives, if the project launched in England by an enthusiastic group of men and women, with Lord Howard de Walden at their head, comes to fruition. Mr. Peter Gawthorne, author and actor, who has arrived in Melbourne, is a member of the committee of the movement and its accredited representative in Australia. Its name is the British Empire Academy, and its function is to promote, aid and unite the arts throughout the Empire. Mr. Gawthorne explained its aims to a representative of the Melbourne “Herald.” How It Originated “It is an ambitious project,” he said, “which had its origin in the sense of the difficulties it was felt lay before capable men and women in the Dominions in getting a hearing for their work in London. “Adversity and disappointment may be good for the artist so long as the ‘hope deferred’ does not make the heart too sick. Grub Street is a picturesque halting place, but a wretched permanent address. “The men who first conceived the idea of founding a clearing-house for the arts, as it were, were sensible of the necessity for two things. -The first was the great benefit art generally would receive by an exchange of thought and personality between the Dominions. Pictures, handicrafts, music, literature and their creators from every part of the Empire would become better known. The second was the helping over the stony places of promising men and women, whatever their mode of artistic self-expression. Florence Austral’s Hardship

“Think of the failure that was almost the portion of your great singer,

Florence Austral, for example. She was, after repeated disappointments, on the point of sailing for Australia when Chance brought her the opportunity she had sought for vainly, and she became known in a night as the world’s greatest Wagnerian singer. “I have been charged,” Mr. Gawtliorne explained, “with initiating the formation of branches of the Academy in each Australian State. Committees will be formed in large country centres, and any promising work may be submitted to these. “A ploughboy poet need no longer despair of having his verses read and judged. The Academy in England will have ample funds to ensure that no talent will go without judgment. £3,000,000 Scheme “The sum of £3,000,000 is being sought in England, and it is intended to build near the Houses of Parliament on a site already acquired a* noble building which will contain picture galleries, a theatre and a cinema, besides concert rooms and ordinary club rooms. It will be used as a rendezvous for all Dominion visitors. “Temporary premises have already been acquired, and the rent of these for the next four years has been paid by Lord Howard de Walden, our president, out of his own pocket. “One useful result is expected to accrue from the creation of the Academy. At a recent Albert Hall concert, given entirely by Dominion artists, it was remarked that only one item on the programme was other than foreign music, and the exception was a Maori song, singularly enough the most popular of all. Songs native to the Dominions are to be specially encouraged. Help Playrights, Too “It is natural for theatre managers in the Dominions to prefer plays that have won success in England and America, passing by local drama and comedy. Yet it has happened that when chances have been taken results have justified them. “We are certain that much hidden talent lies in the Dominions in the way of play-writing, though authors can neither get a chance in their own country nor in England, except fortune be very kind. At least a hearing will be given them by the Academy.

“Such, briefly, is what we are ow to do. We will encourage co-opera-tion between artists and cater for the Dominion outlook, giving artists of al kinds a central home in London.”