International studio (35.1908)

Art School Notes


WROUGHT-IRON GATE, DESIGNED AND EXECUTED
RY STUDENTS OF THE CLASS FOR PRACTICAL
WROUGHT-IRON AT THE GLASGOW AND WEST OF
SCOTLAND TECHNICAL COLLEGE
Preparations for the International Drawing
Congress, and for the World’s Exhibition to be
held in connection with it, have been going on
actively for some time past. Drawings intended
for the exhibition began to arrive over a month
ago, and their selection and arrangement have
necessarily entailed a vast amount of work on the
committee. Donations towards the cost of the
exhibition and congress have been received from
the Hungarian Ministries of Commerce and Public
Instruction and various local authorities in
England, but at last report the amount received
fell far short of that required, viz. ^5,000. No
money grant is being made by our Treasury,
for, strange as it may seem, while local authorities
have power to vote money for such purposes, the
Central Government cannot do so without parlia-
mentary sanction. One would have thought, how-
ever, that the education authorities might without
much difficulty have secured a grant during the
passage of the Budget through the House of
Commons. They have, however, placed at the
disposal of the Committee a portion of the
Museum of Art, and authorised the use of the
Royal College of Art for a reception during
Congress week, which will be attended by some
3,000 persons.

It is expected that over a thousand delegates

will attend the Congress, and one of the tasks
which the British Committee has had to take
in hand is the provision of lodgings for them.
Three or four hundred are coming from America
in detachments, the last leaving within the next few
days, while others started more than a month ago,
intending to make an extended tour through
Europe. The American exhibit will be one of
the most important, and his Excellency the
American Ambassador has shown his interest in
the event by becoming a Vice-President, as also
has Mr. Pierpont Morgan, who has given a
donation of ^,500 to the funds. Foreign govern-
ments are granting cheap fares to teachers who
propose to attend the Congress, and in the United
Kingdom cheap fares have been conceded by all
the railway companies but one.
GLASGOW.—The Art Classes at the
Glasgow and West of Scotland Techni-
cal College are interesting in some
respects, apart from the quality of
the work done and the influence exerted on
applied art in the city and neighbourhood. The
College, in its unfinished state, is the largest
institution of the kind in the country, and when
completed, it will be the biggest in the world.
The Art Superintendent, Mr. John Ednie, is one
of the most practically trained and experienced
directors of art instruction to be met with any-
where, and each member of the teaching staff has
a thorough working knowledge of the branch of
industry he specialises in.
The practical wrought-iron class, under Mr.
John Stewart, working smith, is equipped with
three forges, and is the first class of its kind in
Scotland. The experiment of a day class for
painters and decorators, made for the first time
during last session, proved so eminently satisfac-
tory, largely on account of the hearty co-operation
of the master painters, that the class is likely to
become a permanent one. In some of the de-
partments a feature is the encouragement given to
students to work out original designs, a method
that makes for that individuality for which Glasgow
is justly noted. A successful session closed with an
exhibition of students’ work, that in the modelling,
bookbinding, decorative metal working, and fur-
niture designing classes being specially attractive.
The gate illustrated, with motif of rose and vine, is
characteristic of a type to be met with in some
interesting examples of modern architecture.
J. T.
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