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foyer and the larger auditorium, all with W.P.A. encouragement.

Some Mistakes, Some Gains

So it goes, all around the town. There have been mistakes, many of them, and not a few atrocities in the name of art and relief. But, take it from Messrs. Stokes and Peixotto, there have also been some fine things, and the general quality is improving steadily.

"In the mass," said Mr. Peixotto, "if artists working on murals get right 25 per cent of what they are trying to do, they are doing well. That was true of ordinary submissions even before the depression and the use of public funds for artistic projects. Yet now, in New York City's P.W.A. mural projects, we are getting an even higher average of acceptable work. That was noy true on the earlier C.N.A. endeavors."

Since then there has been a considerable separation of sheep from goats, not only in the work on murals but in the matter of tidying up the sculpture which decorates -- or, in some instances, merely dots -- the city. All in all, the Municipal Art Commission, which once feared a future generation would apply great quantities of white-wash to much of the relief era art, is becoming more convinced that it will leave a very precious legacy to the city. Under the commission's eye will come the restoration of City Hall Park, the building of a perimetric highway around the shores of Manhattan and other projects which work relief money should bring to a more hasty consummation than would otherwise have been possible.

There was a time when Mr. Stokes, appraising the earlier art submitted under Federal encouragement, feared that the city would sacrifice its walls that artists might eat. He foresaw future gene-