The United States Art Directory And Yearbook 1st 2d Year A Guide For Artists Art Students Travellers Etc PDF Download

Excerpt from The United States Art Directory and Yearbook: A Guide for Artists, Art Students, Travellers, Etc The purpose of this little book is sufficiently explained by its title. It aspires to be a guide to artists, art students, - historical, as well as technical, - and travellers of an artistic turn of mind, in matters pertaining to the practical side of art; that is to say, in its educational, social, and mercantile bearings. With the aesthetic side of art it has nothing to do. In its plan it is similar to, although less ambitious than, the works of a like nature which have been published in Europe for some years. As it is the first attempt to give a bird's eye view of the organized efforts making in the United States in behalf of art, the reader will no doubt be inclined to look charitably upon its evident shortcomings. Nor will this charitable tendency be diminished, when it is considered that, with the exception of newspapers and periodicals, and a few of the publications of the Bureau of Education, - all of the latter, however, some years old, - no aids were available. It is manifest from this that most of the facts embodied in the lists herewith submitted had to be elicited by direct application, either by letter or personally, - a laborious proceeding under all circumstances, but rendered more difficult in this case by special conditions. Most of the societies enumerated publish no printed reports, and the answers returned to written inquiries were, in many instances, quite incomplete. If to this be added the shortness of the time necessarily allowed for doing the work, and the unfavorable character of the summer season into which it had to be crowded, the obstacles in the way of the compiler will become still more apparent. The cases in which no answers at all were returned were happily few, but the lists will show that the officials of the old-fashioned kind, who look upon every one inquiring into the interests confided to them as impertinent intruders, have not yet died out entirely. Concerning the policy followed, the reader will please notice that facts only have been given, and that in the selection of these facts no judgment has been exercised or criticism applied. In the case of the educational institutions especially, it has been the constant aim to let them speak for themselves by quoting either the printed documents issued by them, or the written reports received from persons connected with them. The facts thus obtained and the claims thus put forward are simply offered as material from which those interested can draw their own conclusions. It will be well also to state that the length of the notices has nothing whatever to do with the importance of the institutions to which they are devoted. There is apparently a curious discrepancy in this particular. But a moment's reflection will show that the well-defined activity of so prominent an association as "The Society of American Artists" is much more easily compressed into a short paragraph, than the multifarious efforts of an amateur club in some out-of-the way village. One glaring instance of incompleteness will be found in the list of colleges and universities included. It would have been interesting to show the extent to which the study of art, either theoretically or practically, is carried in all these institutions, but, for the present at least, this almost Herculean task could not be undertaken. Even so, however, the few statements of college courses given will convey some idea as to the place assigned to art in our higher institutions of learning, although it was impossible to give these courses with that completeness which might have been desirable. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com