You have been invited her tonight to view this exhibition on the walls that a suggestion may be put before you for your consideration. Vi, the converting of these rooms into a small picture gallery for the use of the people of Victoria.
The Arts and Crafts, a society of long standing in Victoria has rendered valuable service to Victoria by providing a yearly exhibition and also holding sketch classes. But there would seem to be a furthering need. One that touches all classes, all nationalities, all colours.
The proposed art gallery would have a different objective and would in no way interfere or overlay the undertakings of the other society. It would be a place for those who do know something about art., but would also be a place for those who do not and maybe want to. A place for the spirit of art to grow in.
Situated on the very edge of Beacon Hill Park. Possibly linked to the parkin the name and called the Beacon Hill Galleries. (A people’s gallery in a people’s park.) A warm quiet nook to drop into those on those dull winter days when no band plays. A place one could sit and rest and look at pictures in, which would be changed every few weeks. Pictures of all types: conservative, progressive, oriental, children’s. Let the gallery be open on Saturday mornings specially for the children. On Sundays let it be free for all. On weekends, a small fee might be charged to help with running expenses.
In summer the visitors who so frequently ask, “Is there no picture gallery in Victoria?” could take it in, for the sightseeing busses pass the very door. These visitors would also help on the expense of upkeep.
It would be for the benefit to the artists of Victoria by getting their work well known. There are also young Orientals in our midst with their fine inborn sensitiveness to art, and no encouragement whatsoever to go ahead. Boys who have asked for membership to the existing club in Victoria and has been refused.
You would be surprised, as I have been, at the art popping out of odd corners. The other day a negro came to my house, delivering coal. I came to the door with my hands full of paintbrushes. As I signed his book, he said, “Gee! I envy you.” “Why? I asked. “Because I own a monkey?” For I had heard him joking with the monkey below. “No,” he replied. “Because you can paint. Gee I’d love to go out to nature and paint.”
Another day I came to my studio to find two men, hands shading their eyes and noses flattened against the big north window. I flew to the door, angry as a wildcat. “What do you want?” I asked. “Don’t you know it’s rude to peer into other people’s windows?” The man, a baker, drew back. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I did not realize it was rude. I do admire those pictures and this other man likes pictures too.” So I said I would show him some.
As for the vegetable Chinaman, he never misses an opportunity to look in and show real interest. When he went home to China, I gave him a picture to take to his wife. He was much pleased; he had three to choose from and unerringly choose the best. So there you are. Could any of those there go to the annual Victoria exhibition and feel comfortable?
One of the loveliest things about Louvre in Paris is Sunday. the “people’s day.” Then you see soldiers and peasants, workmen and butchers’ boys also, with the empty wooden trays and their blue blouses, doubtless pinching a few moments of their employers’ tie to reverently peep in at the nation’s art treasures.
We may not have Old Master to study and enjoy, but who knows what future masters may be hidden away among the rising generations in our very midst, who might be helped and encouraged by this little gallery. We already have a splendid selection of art books in both our libraries, and short talks in the gallery would be very helpful too and start our young folk a long way on the road to thinking on these things.
Now, of course, there’s the pestiferous money business that butts into everything. This is no job for the city fathers and the overburdened taxpayer. At present the poor things have more than they can bear. But it is the time of all the others that the people need a little happiness of art in their lives, to lead them for brief spells from the bread and butter problems.
It would not take very much money. To start simply and happily we don’t need a stone edifice and liveried attendants, rooms full of priceless pictures and the wrangle and worry of trying to be able to boast that we have the most magnificent gallery in all Canada. We want to grow and to learn to see the real beauty in those things close about us, to learn to express them in paint or to see them so expressed and to understand.
It is to many of these clubs and societies of Victoria. that I would make my appeal for help. and particularly the women’s clubs as well as to interested individuals. Not asking any of you to give a lot, but many of you to each give a little, and all of you, if the idea appeals to you, to give it moral support and mothering.
We have lots of material here to draw from, and I’ve a notion perhaps artists from other places might lean is a parcel of sketches sometimes. We’ll round up the artists we know and dig out unknown ones; we won’t worry about gold and silver frames in our shows but try to get down to understanding and expressing the real things right here all about us.
I have thought about this idea over in a careful practical way for a considerable time, and it seems to me workable. Now I turn it over to you for your weighing, suggesting that it might be given a three-month trial. It would take Victoria quite that time to realize it’s existence, slow catcher-on we are.
