SURPLUS FUNDS OF THE GREAT EXHIBITION: PROVINCIAL SCHOOLS OF ART.
Neweastk, 2d September. Sra—Can you afford a little space for some remarks on the appropriation of the surplus gains of the Great Exhibition with reference to Mr. Fuller's pamphlet ? Mr. Fuller's proposal, some of your readers may not be aware, is, that the large sum at the disposal of the Commissioners should be appropriated to the endowment of the Schools of Design throughout the country ; an application, of all others, most truly in keeping with the conditions under which they are pledged to expend the fund. This proposal derives additional importance from the fact of its emanating from a member of the Commission, and one to whom the country is indebted for the idea, or at least for first moving in the realization of the scheme of a World's Exhibition.
Every one concerned in the administration of any popular measure of a
new kind, undertaken by Government, knows that the channels of communi- cation with the Treasury are of an almost unnavigable description. Every one, from the Chairman of the Board of Trade to the clerk in the executive, looks upon the matter as an additional burden ; while the interests involved being at a distance from Whitehall, and the people benefited being dumb, they are treated as economically as possible. Such has been and is the case with the Provincial Schools of Design. On the other hand, as respects local support, they fare no better. By the exertions of a few in each particular locality, a sum more or less considerable has been raised to start with, and an annual subscription commenced. This has gone on for a number of years ; -in some places leading subscribers, when such have been manufacturers, to expect actual designs from the schools as an equivalent for their support, and that the studies of the dames should be directly bent to such uses as they might point out. Finding, however, that the Schools of Design, like other educational establishments, were merely to teach general principles and right practice, and that the designer and workman were more certainly benefited than they, the subscribers decreased, and the committees became less diligent. It is admitted that the peculiar views of the manufacturers have hindered the course of the schools.
Such being the nature of the two stools on which these establishments
rest, you will not be surprised to learn that they are nearly all in debt. While the Head School, domiciled in Somerset House, and the Female School, are entirely supported by the Treasury grant, thereby absorbing two-thirds of it, many of the fourteen branch schools receive no aid what- ever, save the services of a master paid by the Board of Trade' and the visits of an inspector, whose assumption of importance is regulated by the amount of benefits he and not the school receives.
Under all circumstances, however, public and local, we, who are personally
interested in the cause of art-educalion, cannot expect either Government or voluntary aid to any considerably larger extent. Moreover, the schools have 'thriven tolerably well as yet, the principal part of their work having been initiatory. This first stage has now been accomplished, and the proposition of Mr. Fuller comes in exactly as the necessities of these institutions demand some such strengthening. Can there be any comparison in point of utility or national propriety, in this year of the nineteenth century, between placing on a firm basis the art-education of the productive classes, and the main- tenance of a uselessly vast glass and iron show-room after the show is gone,
v because the show was a good one ? The 'idea of making a winter-garden of the Crystal Palace is now aban- doned, and all manner of schemes to turn the fabric to use have been 'tw- eeted, as if it 'were quite necessary to absorb on the spot the large sum of money providentially at the disposal of the public !
Your extract from the Atheneum of 30th August speaks in this manner- "To throw away the Crystal Palace would be a curious extravagance in a people so wedded to ideas of economy as we are." But surely the true state- ment of the question is—Are we to throw away the money gained in the Crystal Palace by supporting the building after its work is done ? To say Yes, would surely show little economy ; and in a few years, when its aspect shall have ceased to interest any one, it will be undoubtedly felt that the World's Fair would have terminated in better taste had its tabernacle been re- moved when its convocation ended. The great shell standing soiled and so- litary would be rather a funeral trophy.
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