Viewing page 23 of 60

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

-8-
 
attendance of well over a million.

The federal Art Galleries are in the states of North and South Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee, Florida, Oklahoma and Virginia. In each case these centers were planned to to meet the needs of the specific community, to be a focus and center of growth for surrounding districts. Thus in Chattanooga, the manufacturing background of the city is taken into consideration in arranging exhibitions. In Big Stone Gap, Virginia, there are relics of pioneer arts and crafts which link both past and present in exhibition and class work. Mobile had collections that had remained in storage for nearly twenty years. Now they are properly installed and form a nucleus for a permanent museum. In Greensville, South Carolina, The Federal Art Project is realizing its opportunity to aid the citizens to establish a unique textile museum which will help to give meaning and wider cultural value to the major industry of this district.

In general, the Southern galleries are modest in size, but large in vision and influence. They are administered by small staffs, but have large attendance. Everywhere they have received enthusiastic support, evinced by financial sponsorship and local volunteer workers. In North Carolina, for instance, the government spent only $12,000 during the first five months of operation, whereas local contributions totaled $14,000. Although not many of the Southern communities are able to make as large an outlay as this at present, both the people and civic leaders have shown their eagerness for the continuance of these centers. The Southern art centers are not an ephemeral thing, permanently dependent upon government support. They are a now asset and feature of community life, reaching out into the schools and recreation centers, enlisting the enthusiasm even of those who were hostile or apathetic at first. They are not only developing visual education in the South, but building museums and collections for the future.