DOI Heft:
No.9 (December, 1893)
DOI Artikel:The Birmingham Municipal School of Art, with many illustrations of its students' work, I
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17189#0105
The Birmingham Mtmicipal School of Art
have a very high level of such excellence. More it is not our place to inquire; but good light and
than that, much as we may hope for it, we dare not lofty well-ventilated rooms are doubtless a very
from a drawing by sidney heath
reckon on. A certain number of students who show important factor toward the energy of workers
more than average talent, some even with a promise happy enough to receive their training therein.
Coming to practical details, we find that with the
larger space now available, more attention will be
given to repousse and other work in metals—such
as chasing, etching, and engraving on metal, damas-
cening and filigree. Enamel,, which has started
most hopefully, will be practised in all its branches,
wood-carving, wood-engraving, needlework, terra
cotta, encaustic painting, and lithography will also
be studied, not theoretically by means of lectures,
but in practical working. This system of going
beyond the mere design of an object and allowing
the pupil to essay the actual work, with all its
limitations and technical difficulties, is so obviously
a healthy one that it would be a waste of words to
praise it. One can but hope that weaving and
many kindred Art industries may some day come
into the plan. In Philadelphia an industrial school
which has many points in common with Bir-
mingham, shows the theory of technical training
carried to its legitimate development; there the
object is not to make designers and draughtsmen,
but to send its artisan students back to the bench
and the loom, the anvil or the factory, with a know-
ledge of design and a taste for beauty, combined
with a mastery of the technique of their particular
from a drawing by' winifred smith
of genius, whose future will be awaited with keen
interest, occur now and again to restore one's belief
that the dull dead-level will one day be raised.
The fine building in Margaret Street, which from
its well-lighted basement to its top story is admir-
ably planned, and has an air of serious work
throughout, has already been found unequal to the
requirements. Despite the fact that its 561,869
cubic feet might have seemed to an outsider fully
enough, the new wing just opened contains 421,000
cubic feet more. This extension cost ,£16,500 to
build, which, added to the £24,762 of the main
structure, shows an outlay that must be envied by
almost every other provincial school. How far
this liberal arrangement has influenced the result from a drawing by sidney heath
93
have a very high level of such excellence. More it is not our place to inquire; but good light and
than that, much as we may hope for it, we dare not lofty well-ventilated rooms are doubtless a very
from a drawing by sidney heath
reckon on. A certain number of students who show important factor toward the energy of workers
more than average talent, some even with a promise happy enough to receive their training therein.
Coming to practical details, we find that with the
larger space now available, more attention will be
given to repousse and other work in metals—such
as chasing, etching, and engraving on metal, damas-
cening and filigree. Enamel,, which has started
most hopefully, will be practised in all its branches,
wood-carving, wood-engraving, needlework, terra
cotta, encaustic painting, and lithography will also
be studied, not theoretically by means of lectures,
but in practical working. This system of going
beyond the mere design of an object and allowing
the pupil to essay the actual work, with all its
limitations and technical difficulties, is so obviously
a healthy one that it would be a waste of words to
praise it. One can but hope that weaving and
many kindred Art industries may some day come
into the plan. In Philadelphia an industrial school
which has many points in common with Bir-
mingham, shows the theory of technical training
carried to its legitimate development; there the
object is not to make designers and draughtsmen,
but to send its artisan students back to the bench
and the loom, the anvil or the factory, with a know-
ledge of design and a taste for beauty, combined
with a mastery of the technique of their particular
from a drawing by' winifred smith
of genius, whose future will be awaited with keen
interest, occur now and again to restore one's belief
that the dull dead-level will one day be raised.
The fine building in Margaret Street, which from
its well-lighted basement to its top story is admir-
ably planned, and has an air of serious work
throughout, has already been found unequal to the
requirements. Despite the fact that its 561,869
cubic feet might have seemed to an outsider fully
enough, the new wing just opened contains 421,000
cubic feet more. This extension cost ,£16,500 to
build, which, added to the £24,762 of the main
structure, shows an outlay that must be envied by
almost every other provincial school. How far
this liberal arrangement has influenced the result from a drawing by sidney heath
93