CULTURAL ARTS

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1036, 29 July 1930, Page 14

CULTURAL ARTS

PROPOSED BUILDING FOR ART GALLERY DEPUTATION TO MINISTER An important delegation will leave for Wellington tomorrow evening to further the scheme for the building of the proposed conjoint home for the cultural faculties of the Auckland University College and a new art gallery for the City. The delegation will ask the Government to facilitate transfer of the old Grammar School site in Symonds Street to the University and the City Council i and to grant the Grammar School a site elsewhere. The deputation will consist of Sir George Fowlds and Mr. M. Rocke O’Shea, representing the Auckland University College, and Cr. Ellen Melville, Cr. H. P. Burton and Mr. John Barr, director of the Art Gallery, representing the City Council. Tho deputation will request that the Government make available for the University College the site of the old Grammar School in Symonds Street for the purpose of the erection of a Fine Arts block, wherein the University and the City Council would unite to provide a central common home for the University faculties of architecture, music and fine arts and for the Workers’ Educational Association, the City Art Gallery and all the major cultural and aesthetic societies of the City, such as the Society of Arts, Operatic Society, Little Theatre Society, Society of Musicians and similar bodies, together with the senior classes of the Elam School of Art. GOVERNMENT SYMPATHY In appealing for Government sympathy, the deputation will say that the completion of the scheme will tend, by virtue of its wide appeal to convert the University from an institution, which is by no means even a civic one, to what will ultimately become a fully provincial one. Further, the promoters will point out the great value of the addition to the City of an imposing building in the joint ownership of City and University. The deputation will recall to the Government that there is precedent for the help the deputation seeks, namely, the provision by the Government of a site for the Wellington Art Gallery. The University proposes to finance its side of the scheme bv public appeal and the deputation feels that success in this direction is assured. That the scheme has the warm support of the Auckland Grammar School Board, subject to safeguarding of its interests, is another factor which the delegation will bring before the Minister. Again, the non-exist ence of competing claims for the site by other educational bodies weighs importantly in the view of the promoters. Auckland members of Parliament will be invited to accompany the deputation and the Hon. J. B. Donald is to be asked to introduce the delegation to the Minister of Education .