changes in staffing took place, the depres-
sior years of the early 1930’s made civic
fathers look hungrily at the lean-fed art
school, and the problem of adequate spac-
ina had to be met.

In course of time these conditions
passed, the school was given more accom-
modation, and the public, including indus-
try, came to realize the place of an Art
School in the city’s life.

Tne School feels it has made a double
contribution; one to Canadian Art and one
to those industries in the city which em-
ploy the artist-designer.

There is no space to go into the various
art positions and honours achieved by
former students but the School is especi-
ally proud of the fact that four of its
former students and one member of the
staff were appointed Canadian War Artists
during World War II.

The quality of painting in B. C. exhibi-
tions has been greatly strengthened by
the inclusion of works by former students.
This reflects the good work of a loyal and
enthusiastic staff consisting at present of
Grace W. Melvin, Fred A. Amess, B. C.
Binning, J. L. Shadbolt, and a number of
other teachers, past and present, in the
Day, . Evening and Saturday Morning
Classes.

The present session has an over-all en-

‘ yolment of eight hundred and fifty -stu-

‘dents, many of whom are discharged ser-
vice men and women.

The School conducts a Summer School
during July for Teachers of the Elementary
and High Schools of the Province seeking
Art Education. In the Public.-Schools and
in the Normal School, increasing import-
ance is being given to art by teachers,
who are keenly aware of the cultural and
social: values of their subject. Many
schools are not: only «giving opportunities
for practice in the Arts to their pupils but
are bringing in travelling exhibitions for
the. pupils to see; Canadian films such as

‘those covering the work of Tom Thomp-

son and A. Y. Jackson are being shown;
Art Clubs are encouraged to meet after
the regular school hours; and lectures in
Art appreciation, with coloured slides and
‘prints as illustrative material, form part
of the school curriculum.

So far; the University of British Colum-
bia has been unable to provide the oppor-
tunity for its. students to gain a knowledge
of the arts commensurate with the oppor-
tunities offered in the academic and scien-
tific fields, but there are hopes both inside
and outside the University that such a
condition will soon be changed.

It would indeed be a pity if our future
professional men and women leave the

University without having an adult know-
ledge and appreciation of what the arts
mean in living.

The opening of the Art Gallery in Octo-
ber, 1931, was a great step forward in
the Art history of the city and Province.
Instead of sporadic exhibitions, usually
badly housed, the public ‘are now given
well-hung exhibitions drawn from the Gal-
lery's permanent collection, supplemented
with travelling exhibitions from the Na-
tional Gallery, Eastern and local Art So-

This showing of constantly changing
exhibitions draws a large measure of sup-
port from the public.

The Gallery is financed by membership
fees and a small annual grant from the city
treasury. Present demands on the Gallery
space is so great that the council are con-
sidering plans for an extension to the pres-
ent building.

Since the opening of the Gallery in
1931, over 766 special exhibitions have
been held. Of this total sixty per cent
were one-man shows, mainly by B. C.
Artists. Attendances at the Gallery dur-
ing the year 1946 totalled 98,000.

_ The council, under the presidency of
W. H. Malkin, is keenly alive to the edu-
cational side of an Art Gallery and misses
no opportunity of providing Vancouver
with exhibitions of many styles of art. In
this way provincialism in Art breaks down
before the wider view.

Lawren Harris, chairman of the Exhibi-
tion Committee, has done much to intro-
duce a breadth and tolerance to the view-
ing of creative work of all kinds.

Children’s Classes are held in the Art
Gallery each ‘Saturday morning, under
grant from the Department of Education.

The recently formed Ladies’ Auxiliary to
the Gallery, under the chairmanship of
Mrs. J. P. Fell, has increased the public's
enjoyment of the Gallery and has also
been responsible for increasing the Associ-
ation's membership to its present total of
eight hundred and twenty.

Innovations to Gallery life brought in
by the Auxiliary include Symphony Pre-
views, Friday Evening Concerts for Ser-
vicemen and women; Painting for Pleasure
Classes; Christmas Nativity Tableaux with
choral music, and a series of lectures on
Art subjects.

All of this puts considerable strain on
the small staff, headed by A. S. Grigsby
as Curator.

The Gallery is now an established civic
institution, but so far-has done little to
encourage Canadian Art by the purchase
of Canadian works. It should not be for-

gotten that the public likes to see the best
that is being done in their time; visitors
from abroad also like to see Canadian
work. .Furthermore, there is virtue in re-
warding the creative artist of one’s time;
little virtue in purchasing tired old-masters.
In this respect the Gallery has a respon-
sibility to Canadian Art which it cannot
afford to ignore.

The Labor Aris Guild, organized in July,
1944, under the direction of John Goss,
eminent musician and writer, was a com-
munity effort on the part of workers in
industry, business and in the various arts.
It was designed to foster closer co-oper-
ation between organized labor and those
engaged in advancing the progress of
music, fine arts, literature and drama. The
Labor Arts Guild held the conviction that
the Labor Movement has need of the artist
to give voice, colour and dramatic empha-
sis to labor’s contribution to the cause of
social welfare and national unity. It is
equally “convinced that workers in. the

arts, if they would avoid isolation, futility

and the shabby-gentee] snobbery which in
recent years has come to be associated
with artistic endeavour must place their
talents at the service of the politically and
industrially conscious working people.”

During: ‘the. first eight months. of the
Guild’s existence four major projects were
successfully undertaken. The first of these
was a competitive Art exhibition, ‘British
Columbia at Work”,

This was’ the first exhibition of its kind
to be held in Canada and was unique in
that the subject matter of the competitive
works dealt exclusively with the industrial
and working life of the Province through
the media of painting, sculpture, drawing
and woodearving. And for the first time in
Canadian history, Trade Unions concerned
themselves with such matters by contribu-
ting over $600.00 in cash prizes.

Other completed projects of the Guild
included a series of People’s Concerts
held on Sunday everiings, an author's con-
test for the purpose of stimulating con-
temporary Canadian writing of one-act
plays, short ‘stories and poems on demo-
cratic themes, a stage production of Nor-
man Corwin's farnous radio drama, “Un-
titled”, and a full-length production of
Hamlet.

The possibilities of the Guild with its
backing from the Trade Unions could be
of immense significance in furthering the
Arts in Canada. Unfortunately the Labor
Arts Guild is not in operation at present.

The B. C. Region of The Federation of
Canadian Artists has been engaged for the
past five years in Province-wide activities.
Included in these. activities are the send-
ing of small travelling exhibitions of Art-to
the Interior towns of the Province in co-