Studio: international art (64.1915)

Art School Notes

EMBROIDERED BAG BY MARY M. RINTOUL

( Central School of Arts and Crafts)

What is needed, therefore, is a better under-
standing between those who have charge of our
schools and the leaders of industrial undertakings.
Much may be learnt in this direction from Ger-
many and Austria, for there is abundant evidence
to show that in the remarkable development of
industry which has taken place in those countries
during the past decade, the arts and crafts schools
have played a very significant part, but this result
has only been made possible by the schools
paying due regard to the practical requirements
of the various branches of industry
with which they are concerned and the
encouragement and sympathy shown to
them by the manufacturers. An in-
teresting point in connection with the
organisation of these Continental
schools of industrial art is that our own
schools of a kindred character have to
a large extent served as exemplars. The
educational authorities of both
countries have paid special attention
to our institutions for the training of
artist-craftsmen, and have been quick
to turn to advantage what they have
learned from them. If any one of
them in particular has yielded them
guidance, it is the Central School
of Arts and Crafts carried on under
the control of the London County BOX ,

Council.

The Central School, which wTas established in
1896 “to provide instruction in those branches
of design and manipulation which bear on the
more artistic trades,” has from the beginning dis-
tinguished itself by a high standard of achievement
in its various departments of activity. These are
arranged in certain more or less cognate groups,
each of which is accommodated, as far as possible,
on a single floor of the commodious building in
Southampton Row, where for the past six or seven
years the school has been carried on. These groups
are : Architecture and the Building Crafts, includ-
ing stone and wood-carving, art metal work, bronze
casting, &c.; Silversmiths’ work and Allied Crafts;
Book Production, an important group embracing
besides composition, press work, bookbinding, and
book illustration, the various graphic arts, such as
wood-cutting for reproduction, lithography, etching
and mezzotint, as well as poster design, writing and
illuminating, miniature painting and pastel paint-
ing ; Cabinet Work and Furniture, comprising both
the structural and decorative aspects of the craft;
Decorative Needlework, which includes dress
designing and making; Stained Glass Work,
Mosaic and Decorative Painting. In close relation
to all these groups there is a department for
drawing, design and modelling, with facilities for
working from the living model.

One feature of the Central School is worth
particular notice : the examination “ fiend ” does
not intrude here as it does in the majority of schools,
and the institution is one of the small number that
do not take part in the National Competition

EBONY INLAID WITH MOTHER OF PEARL.
( Central School of Arts and Crafts)

BY A. RIFAI

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