International studio (34.1908)

The Baltimore Experiment

Art in the market place
THE BALTIMORE EXPERIMENT
BY LEILA MECHLIN
Reverting to ancient methods, the
Municipal Art Society of Baltimore has been en-
deavoring, this winter, to increase an intelligent
love of art on the part of the general public by liter-
ally having it preached in the market places. A
course of popular lectures on art has been delivered
by Mr. John Quincy Adams, of the Art Commission
of New York, under the auspices of the Municipal
Art Society, in the market halls of the city. The
course comprised ten lectures, each of which was
given three times in as many different places. The
first was delivered on November 27 and the last
February 27. They were illustrated by objects
and stereopticon slides, and were practical as well
as popular. Some of the subjects were, for exam-
ple : “What is Art?” “Art in the Day’s Work,”
“ Art in the Use of Things ” and “ Art in the Streets
of European and American Cities”; and the effort
was not only to interest and inform, but practically
to thrust home simple truths. Mr. Adams carried
his tools with him, and arrived in Baltimore, one
week, with his suit-case filled with bric-a-brac hor-
rors which he exhibited to his audiences, expatia-
ting upon their inartistic design. In almost every
instance he showed the bad with the good and drew
his illustrations from among those things which
were familiar.
As further conducive to entertainment and cul-
ture, a short programme of music was arranged to
supplement each lecture—music, sometimes vocal,
sometimes instrumental, but of the best, and se-
lected with peculiar appropriateness. And, in addi-
tion to this “refreshment for the soul,” food for the
inner man was provided, hot bouillon, steaming
coffee and tempting sandwiches being served.
Measures were taken to make the movement
known, but the lectures were not extensively
advertised, and the attendance for the first few
weeks was small. Gradually, however, it in-
creased, so that early in January in one hall
at least it amounted to about three hundred
persons. This demonstrates interest, and interest
of the best kind, so that before the experiment was
half tried it gave promise of success. Results from
such work as this, however, are not immediate—
the seed sown in this wise will often lay long
fallow.
It is, without doubt, though, a step in the right
direction, for as the French Ambassador once said,
to accomplish great ends in art it is essential to

have the sympathy and assistance of the people—
the masses.
This is not the first radical step the Municipal
Art Society of Baltimore has taken, or the first time
it has set other cities a notably good example. Or-
ganized in 1899, with a present membership of over
five hundred, it has done, and is doing, much to
raise the standard of art in its own community.
After the plan of the Senate Park Commission for
the beautifying of Washington was made, the Munic-
ipal Art Society engaged the services of Mr. Fred-
erick Law Olmsted, Jr., to consider and prepare
a report upon a future park system which might
connect the suburbs of Baltimore, expending for
the purpose its own funds. When the report was
completed it was carefully set forth, and proved in
merit so convincing that it was adopted by the Park
Board and paid for by the city. The money thus
returned was, after the same manner, put out at
interest, a commission of experts being appointed
to draw up a comprehensive plan for the artistic
development of the city.
Nor is this all. The decoration of the Baltimore
Court Plouse was instigated by the Municipal Art
Society, which offered to provide $5,000 for the first
mural painting if the city would give $10,000 addi-
tional. This resulted, eventually, in an expenditure
of $28,000 and the acquisition by the city of notable
mural paintings by C. Y. Turner, Edwin H. Blash-
field and John La Farge. This Society has also
been active in decorating the public schools, in
abating the smoke nuisance and procuring a statue
of Edgar Allan Poe, and, under its auspices, in April
a great exhibition of American sculpture is to be held.
In the early days Baltimore was a haven for the
arts, and the city is now, after a long pause, experi-
encing, it would seem, a renaissance. The Rhine-
hart scholarships in sculpture are held in trust by
the Peabody Institute, which can boast also a fair
collection of paintings; the Maryland Institute,
with its fine building and new corps of capable
instructors, is starting upon a fresh era of activity
and service, and the Walters collection, with recent
accessions, is soon to be transferred to the splendid
new gallery which its owner has recently erected
for its accommodation. There is nothing spas-
modic, or sensational, about these manifestations
of progress—there is no evidence of a sudden awak-
ening which might rebound disastrously, but rather
a gradual opening up of latent resources and a
steady movement toward a definite end. Baltimore
may truly be said to be the gateway to the South,
and for this reason, this movement in the line of
progress is especially significant.

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