A British Institute of Industrial Art

Abstract

AT the Royal Society of Arts on October 28 the Right Hon. H. A. L. Fisher, President of the Board of Education, presided over a meeting called to consider a scheme for the promotion of a British Institute of Industrial Art. Mr. Fisher, in his introductory address, referred to the past history of industrial art in Great Britain, remarking that people in this country are apt to depreciate the national ability in artistic directions. What is needed is a centre to promote a closer relation between art and industry, and this the proposed scheme, which will involve the co-operation of the Board of Trade, the Board of Education, and the Royal Society of Arts, aims at providing. The chief feature of the scheme is a permanent exhibition to be held at the Victoria and Albert Museum, where representative works illustrating a high standard of British artistic craftsmanship will be shown. The exhibition should in time become self-supporting, and the nation would purchase annually a selected number of exhibits to form a permanent nucleus. The scheme also provides for a central fund to enable grants to be awarded for research and experimental work, institute scholarships, and initiate propaganda. Co-operation with the British School of Rome, with the view of enabling students to study Roman art, was proposed.