DOI issue:
No. 102 (August, 1905)
DOI article:The Rochester Athenaeum and Mechanics Institute
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.26960#0243
77i? 77
ROCHESTER MECHANICS INSTITUTE
EXHIBITION ROOM DESIGNED AND EXECUTED BY THE PUPILS
of aim that can lead to no good end. But on the
whole, if there is one thing not characteristic of the
movement, it is, of course, a lack of practicality.
The whole inspiration of the arts and crafts idea is
that art is an every-day affair, that we need not be
in a gallery or before an easel to see art works or to
be artists. If, then, we are not only willing to admit
that woods and metals and fabrics and what not are
mediums as legitimate for expression as any other,
but if we are engaged in making practical demon-
stration of such conviction, we shall find that old
courses of instruction devised for a training that did
not embrace so catholic a field, will need revision.
Accordingly, one of the several points of diverg-
ence that will be noticed at the Mechanics Institute
is the shifting of emphasis from antique and life
drawing. The piaster cast loses its industrious
circle of devotees forthwith. Instead of marking
the beginning of the pupil's work, the study of the
antique is permitted only in the advanced stages
and even then rather for purposes of reference and
comparison. Throughout the student's training
from first to last the stress is laid on the develop-
ment of the creative faculty. The study of form,
colour and composition are not carried on in separ-
ate classes under different instructors, but are kept
together, in order that the student may realize that
the mastery of various technical mediums is not the
end but only the means thereto. Nor is the student
restricted in any class to the use of certain mediums.
He is taught that the medium and the ability to
manipulate it are both only vehicles for the expres-
sion of ideas.
In the first year, indeed, the student is not
allowed to specialize in any one direction, as it is
believed that the broadening knowledge and expe-
rience to be found in a variety of methods and
processes is highly important to his equipment in
any one. He is therefore given a general training in
both the aesthetics and mechanics of art. More
than many arts schools the Department of Fine
Arts of the Mechanics Institute is able to offer op-
portunities for a broad and varied experience as a
basis for later specialization, being as it is an inte-
gral part of a school embracing many departments
of technical and scientific education, by the side of
the theoretic and classical, and equipped with
work shops and laboratories of the first order.
After the first year the student has a choice be-
tween four carefully planned courses of study: The
fine arts course, intended for the training of
painters, sculptors and illustrators; the decorative
arts and crafts course, for the development of the
artist-craftsman; the architectural course, for the
XLIV
ROCHESTER MECHANICS INSTITUTE
EXHIBITION ROOM DESIGNED AND EXECUTED BY THE PUPILS
of aim that can lead to no good end. But on the
whole, if there is one thing not characteristic of the
movement, it is, of course, a lack of practicality.
The whole inspiration of the arts and crafts idea is
that art is an every-day affair, that we need not be
in a gallery or before an easel to see art works or to
be artists. If, then, we are not only willing to admit
that woods and metals and fabrics and what not are
mediums as legitimate for expression as any other,
but if we are engaged in making practical demon-
stration of such conviction, we shall find that old
courses of instruction devised for a training that did
not embrace so catholic a field, will need revision.
Accordingly, one of the several points of diverg-
ence that will be noticed at the Mechanics Institute
is the shifting of emphasis from antique and life
drawing. The piaster cast loses its industrious
circle of devotees forthwith. Instead of marking
the beginning of the pupil's work, the study of the
antique is permitted only in the advanced stages
and even then rather for purposes of reference and
comparison. Throughout the student's training
from first to last the stress is laid on the develop-
ment of the creative faculty. The study of form,
colour and composition are not carried on in separ-
ate classes under different instructors, but are kept
together, in order that the student may realize that
the mastery of various technical mediums is not the
end but only the means thereto. Nor is the student
restricted in any class to the use of certain mediums.
He is taught that the medium and the ability to
manipulate it are both only vehicles for the expres-
sion of ideas.
In the first year, indeed, the student is not
allowed to specialize in any one direction, as it is
believed that the broadening knowledge and expe-
rience to be found in a variety of methods and
processes is highly important to his equipment in
any one. He is therefore given a general training in
both the aesthetics and mechanics of art. More
than many arts schools the Department of Fine
Arts of the Mechanics Institute is able to offer op-
portunities for a broad and varied experience as a
basis for later specialization, being as it is an inte-
gral part of a school embracing many departments
of technical and scientific education, by the side of
the theoretic and classical, and equipped with
work shops and laboratories of the first order.
After the first year the student has a choice be-
tween four carefully planned courses of study: The
fine arts course, intended for the training of
painters, sculptors and illustrators; the decorative
arts and crafts course, for the development of the
artist-craftsman; the architectural course, for the
XLIV