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the public of Worcester and the nearby cities and towns to see advantageously displayed the best that is now being done in America. These summer exhibitions have acquired national celebrity, and the best painters of Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Chicago contribute to them gladly, not only on account of the prizes offered, and the chance of making sales, but also because of the certainty that their picures will be well hung in thoroughly suitable galleries.

Although these summer art shows are a principal attraction they are by no means the sum total of accomplishments in the decade of the museum's existence. That includes the erection of a well equipped building, the creation of a promising school, the beginnings of collections in several departments and frequent minor exhibitions in various branches of the fine

arts.

The institution is just about to enter upon its eleventh year. It was organized at a meeting on February 25, 1896, at which Mr. Salisbury presided and at which he announced his purpose to give to the new corporation the sum of $100,000, as well as a tract of valuable land fronting on Salisbury street. and lying between Tuckerman and Lancaster streets. Plans were drawn by Stephen C. Earle, a local architect, for a building of fireproof construction, with low plinth, steps and basement of granite and with a superstructure of light brick with marble trimmings. The visitor enters the building by a recessed main entrance, having three openings each eight feet wide, and giving into an open porch seven feet wide. A corresponding door

way leads into the main staircase hall, which is of imposing dimensions and in which which appears a

marble and iron staircase connecting the several stories. In the basement are four rooms for classes and administration offices, and on the other floors are the usual galleries for exhibiting sculptures, prints and pictures.

The cornerstone of the museum was laid June 24, 1897, and the structure was turned over to the corporation on May 10, 1898, simultaneously with the opening of an exhibition which was arranged by coöperation of the Worcester Art Museum and the Worcester Art Society.

Since that auspicious opening the growth has been moderate and thoroughly normal. An art museum is not to be created out of hand, especially if its resources are comparatively limited at the outset. The Worcester museum was recognized as being largely experimental. The directors were trying to discover in what way they could make the institution most useful to the community. Throughout the early years Mr. Salisbury was its guiding genius. The benefit of his intelligence and good taste was felt at every turn, though the scope of his intentions was not known. Hardly a day passed-so we are told by the manager of the museum, Mr. John G. Heywood-that Mr. Salisbury did not make his tour of inspection through the building. Every object in the collections he knew intimately. His frequently expressed desire was to have built up in Worcester a good all-round art museum rather than one especially strong in a single department or in two or three departments.

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munity an art school has been started. This has a present respectable standing and excellent prospects. The instructors are Philip L. Hale, who teaches the classes in drawing from the cast and the live model; Hermann Dudley Murphy, who has charge of the painting classes, and Gustaf Rodgers, whose department is the arts and crafts. The last named instruction is something that was introduced for the first time last autumn. It bids fair to be remarkably successful.

The foregoing results have set a certain standard. From the unanimity with which a few general ideas were advanced in a recent symposium of opinions in the Worcester "Telegram," as well as from present day tendencies in museum making, it may be possible to make two or three unofficial conjectures as to the direction in which this art museum, the perfecting of which affects every breadwinner in New England, may be expected to develop.

Salisbury street, a wing of 270 feet along Tuckerman street, and one on Lancaster street of 340 feet. The present building, which will thus be relegated to the rear side, is 120 feet long by 60 feet wide. The entire structure will cover a lot of about ninety thousand square feet, and will enclose a courtyard, offering such opportunities for dec

orative treatment as are found in the courtyard of the Boston Public Library.

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The museum will be three stories high, with a basement for offices and workshops. No date has been set for its completion, since some of the funds consist in investments in real estate upon which it may be decided best to realize slowly It has been stated, however, that the new building may possibly be completed within four or five years. Whether the photometric experiments which have recently been going on at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston will be taken cognizance of is a matter that has perhaps not yet been considered. The conclusions reached by the scientists in these investigations will, no doubt, be worth examination in perfecting the plans of the Worcester museum, as of every art museum subsequently to

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several American landscape and figure painters are believed by many critics to have the promise of becoming old masters. They are often available at moderate prices, and although some of them will drop in value instead of increasing, there is no question but that a museum or an individual collecting

best available examples of American painting and sculpture. Few of the leading art museums, as has frequently been pointed out, have representative collections of the works of artists whose names now rank high among the world's greatest. Viewing the subject from the purely financial standpoint, an institution which thirty years ago, them judiciously on a large scale is

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