International studio (54.1914/1915)

A Western Renaissance

Michigan, especially in the north and west, out-
side the circle of Detroit, whose museum, like that
of Toledo, belongs more to the Atlantic group, is
developing an active support. The city of Grand
Rapids invites art lecturers and exhibitions, and
in the summer the largest Chautauqua of the
Middle West, that at Bay View, Michigan, sup-
ports an art school and makes a feature of illus-
trated lectures on painting and sculpture.
The Minnesota State Art Society has a history
unparallelled in the annals. It illustrates the
renaissance of art for the people and the crusade

Besides, the State Art Society circulates exhibi-
tions of paintings, sculpture, the handicrafts and
industrial arts in the towns. It offers prizes for
model farmhouses, publishes and circulates the
plans. Its scheme is practically inexhaustible,
leading from art museums to art in the home, in
house furnishings, gardens and town planning.
After making an art census of activities, clubs, col-
lections, industries and the innumerable instances
in which art might be considered, Director Flagg
and his assistants saw the possibilities of the
foreign-born lace makers of Minnesota. It was


SCHOOLCHILDREN VISITING A GALLERY AT THE JOHN HERRON ART INSTITUTE, INDIANAPOLIS

of modern art better than any of the museum
forces described, for it has not had traditions to
build upon. The Minnesota State Art Society was
created by an enlightened legislature in 1904 and is
a department of the State Government of Minne-
sota. Its headquarters are in the old State capi-
tol at St. Paul, and Maurice I. Flagg, formerly of
Boston, is its director. It exists for the purpose of
promoting art in relation to the needs of Minne-
sota, which has a foreign-born population,bringing
the talent and skill of old-world craftsmen to the
new. It intends to encourage home industries and
to keep young people in the villages and on the
farms, to their own and the State’s advantage.

resolved to keep the colony together, and by tact-
ful management the women were induced to use
linen thread and to improve their patterns, and the
result is that these lace makers are famous and
receive good financial returns for their products,
marketed by the Minnesota State Art Society.
The annual art exhibition of paintings, sculp-
ture and crafts work sent out by the Minneapolis
State Art Society prepared its way by advance
advertising. In twenty-seven days it visited the
cities of St. Paul, Minneapolis and Owatonna. In
the Twin Cities one person in twenty-five attended,
and at Owatonna 1,500 in excess of the population
entered the gallery, owing to the response of the

XLIV