Budding Art Group Sponsors 'Life' Classes And Quarter Million Dollar Graduate School

Extracurricular interest in the graphic arts, which has been moribund since 1933, got a shot in the arm recently with the organization of the Harvard Art Association. Not since the esoteric Society for Contemporary Art died in the depths of the depression has the scene looked so hopeful for undergraduate brush wielders.

Organized in November, the Association already boasts 40 members paying the not inconsiderable dues of five dollars a year. In the finest tradition of serious art, the members do their work in a two room studio garret on the top of Sever Hall where the Association offers three-hour "life" classes once a week.

Another benefit, accruing to members are bi-weekly lectures by members of the Fine Arts Department, and experts from the Institute of Modern Art in Boston. Robert L. Matters '50, president of the Association, claims that the lectures are for both artists and art appreciators.

Biggest item on the agenda of future plans is the Association's hope to get the University's blessing for a graduate school of art. If and when permission is given for this project, they expect to raise the necessary one quarter-million dollars themselves and put the funds into several endowed chairs for the proposed graduate school.

Also in the books is the publication of a semi-yearly art magazine tentatively bearing the title, The Harvard Art Journal. With this entry in the field of University publications, the place occupied by the long defunct Hound and Horn magazine will be filled.