QUALITY OF EXHIBITS

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 426, 6 May 1937, Page 6

QUALITY OF EXHIBITS

NEW ZEALAND ART GALLERIES Suggestion To Appoint Expert Press Association—Copyright. Wellington. May 5. That the Dominion’s museums and art galleries are, as a whole, far too prone to exhibit rubbish rather tiijan reserve their space for what ie of re’djj cultural value, and tha‘t; mus l eums in particular tend to cultivate curio-lmindedness rather than mus-eum-mindedness is the considered opinion of Captain Humphreys' Davies, of Auckland, who has jus't concluded an exhibition of Chinese art at the Dominion Museum. “Cultural activities in the Dominion .are directed by a small handful in each centre—by people who, although actuated 110 doubt by the best motives, are not qualified in the leiast tor the work which they are undertaking," he said. “They are nothing more in many Instances than mere dilettantes, who have control of the expenditure of what is in the aggregate a very large sum. “New Zealand is a by-word in cultural circles in Britain at a sink for unsaleable works of art, and New Zealand galleries accept stuff which should not be seen in any self-fres-pecting gallery. The same applies, I tear, to our museums. There is too much in them that, should not be there at all. They are definitely making the public curio-minded, not museumminded. Both galleries and museums are suffering from the same disability—from fear of offending someone or other who leaves a lega.ey or

makes a gift or someone with a name. "The remedy lies in the direction of appointing a Minister .of Fine Arts and the onus would be on him to decide how trust funds and the people’s money should be spent. Power should be taken away from boards 1 of unqualified persons of spending money on cultural exhibits.”