Four Questions About Art - ACE086.2

John Ruskin, lecturing, says he is supposed to speak on "the treasures of art" but does not believe that his audience really cares for them as they care for industrial work as they think there is no economic return. He says that "… art is nothing less than part and parcel of the wealth of this country…" and proposes to deal with the following questions: How to discover your artist, how best to employ him, how to accumulate and preserve his work, and how to distribute it to the best national advantage. Caption: "First, how to discover your artist." School art class. Teach tells pupils they can use whatever colours they like and however they want them, but that they should think about those colours and about the shapes in which they apply them, and where Drawings and paintings by schoolchildren. Commentary says that: "In 1836, the Church Societies reported that drawing … had been found useful for teaching habits of attention and neatness…" and describes how boys were enabled to draw in chalk on black painted tables, etc. Art class with teacher commenting on pupils’ work. Children’s paintings. Commentary: "The Select Committee on the Arts and Their Connection with Manufactures was appointed … in 1835 … to inquire into the best means of extending a knowledge of the arts and the principles of design among the people…" People giving evidence to the Committee "complained that French manufactures were far superior to British in design…" as French workmen "were better educated and a knowledge of the arts extended lower down society". Art class. Pupils say which designs they like best and explain why. Children painting. Commentary: "In 1836, the first school of design was established in London, with responsibility for art education throughout the country…", the students were expected to find employment in something other than the arts, and the school’s first director believed that artisans should not to be exposed to "high art" nor allowed to draw from life lest they attempted "to better themselves by becoming fine artists". Teacher in empty classroom talks about particular pupils; a poster designed by one of them for the 1979 U.N. Year of the Child, and painting of a railway engine by a boy "now working on the railways".