History up until the late 1960’s, written by Ruth Rowe, President, 1960
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The San Diego Art Association was organized in January 1904 and incorporated
August 19, 1904. Its first President was Daniel Cleveland. The purpose
of this organization was stated to be for “The study and encouragement
of Art in all its higher branches; to establish and maintain art schools,
to erect, own, equip, and maintain works of art, to erect, own, equip,
and maintain buildings for the purpose of this Corporation.” The articles
further declared intentions to purchase and lease lands and buildings
and in general set itself up as a corporation to deal with all financial
aspects necessary to carry out its purposes.
Numerous leaders of the San Diego community became members. Records of
the functioning of this organization after 1911 seem lost, but by 1915
the group had ceased to be active.
From the old Artist Guild minutes, it appears that many members of this
old association, plus newly interested people, gathered together on September
15, 1915 in the Club Room of the Hotel Barstow to reorganize themselves.
This time they called themselves the San Diego Art Guild. There were twenty
people present, and thirty-one listed as charter members in the Treasurer’s
Ledger and Cash Book.
The Art Guild held its first meeting in the “B” Street School on December
16, 1915, with its first president, Henry Lord Gay, presiding. This group,
still interested in “The study and encouragement of Art in all its higher
branches” was now primarily designed to offer activities for the producing
artists of the area. The Guild sponsored various classes (some in the
Museum of Man, some elsewhere) and held exhibitions of members work in
miscellaneous places in and beyond San Diego County.
In 1916 Rebecca Rogers, Secretary of the Art Guild wrote to Mr. Cleveland,
President of the old Art Association, in an effort to call a meeting of
the old association. The purpose was to create a union between the two
organizations. Mr. Louis Blochman, the Association’s Treasurer, still
had funds on the books, but other officers could not be located. Consequently,
later that year, the Art Guild dropped its efforts either to unite with
the association or incorporate. There were then one hundred members and
a few dollars in the Art Guild treasury. However, the Art Guild, still
seeing needs for the welfare of art in the community, continued working
in ideas, particularly on that of building a gallery to house fine arts
exhibits.
In 1920, the House Committee of the Art Guild met with Miss Louise
Darby to plan the promotion of a lay organization to be called Friends
of Art. In 1921, the Friends of Art wrote to the Guild, thanking them
for their assistance and declaring they were ready to work and to govern
themselves. Their objectives, similar to those of the old Art Association,
were directed toward bringing traveling exhibits to San Diego, and in
particular, to get a gallery for these exhibits and possible acquisitions.
Through the efforts of this group, and through the generosity of Mr. and
Mrs. Appleton S. Bridges, the building of a new gallery in Balboa Park
was begun. In March, 1925, Mr. and Mrs. Bridges proposed that the Friends
of Art combine into a larger organization for the purpose of operating
the then nearly completed Fine Arts Gallery, and that the name be changed
from Friends of Art to Fine Arts Society. The proposal was unanimously
accepted. On December 10, 1925, the engagement of Reginald Poland as Director
of the gallery was announced.
The completed Gallery was donated to the city of San Diego by Mr. and
Mrs. Bridges as their gift. On February 27, 1926, the new Gallery opened,
and shortly thereafter, the Art Guild moved in with the Fine Arts Society.
In 1928, a special meeting of some members of the old San Diego Art
Association was held. This group, representing the now defunct organization,
voted to dissolve the corporation and donate the $300 balance of the old
treasury left in the care of Mr. L.A. Bochman to the Fine Arts Society
as a start for a permanent endowment Library fund.
The Fine Arts Society and the Art Guild, though related, functioned as
separate organizations with separate officers, by-laws, and elections.
With the passing of years, and with each new Guild administration, the
relationship of the Guild and the Society became confused, until, in 1937,
a study was made for the purpose of clarifying this relationship.
As a result of this study, a proposal was made in 1938, and accepted by
both organizations, that the Art Guild become a committee of the Fine
Arts Society, and as such, consist of working artists who would be responsible
for organizing and hanging their own shows. This plan was put into operation
in 1939, at which time the Guild had grown to 224 members.
In a few years the war began and the US Navy moved temporarily into the
Fine Arts Gallery. The Fine Arts Society and the Art Guild moved to 2324
Pine Street in 1944 and then to Sunset Boulevard in 1945. In 1946, the
Navy released the Gallery in the Park and the Fine Arts Society and the
Guild moved back. By this time, and during the next few years, the Guild
instituted numerous changes, all designed to improve the caliber of membership,
organization, and exhibits. A credentials committee was formed to pass
on Guild applicants; a limit of one year for each presidential term was
voted; stricter juries for exhibits were urged. For many years, the Art
Guild had held two juried shows, one in the fall and one in the spring.
A third show, an all member non-juried show around Christmas time was
abandoned as too uneven in caliber and not proper as an exhibit in the
Fine Arts Gallery.
Each succeeding president of the Guild attempted, with the approval of
his board, to get the finest professional juries for their shows, alternating
one man juries with two and three man juries, in order to present exhibits
demonstrating varying philosophies in art. There was a strong desire among
many to encourage the Guild to become even more selective in its membership
acceptances and in its shows, while at the same time offering more opportunities
of exposure of members’ works.
Numerous exhibits where works were combined with community merchants’
campaigns and other groups were tried. Among these were the Benbough Company’s
“Accent on Art” shows begun in 1959; Marston’s windows and other exhibits,
1960; World Trade Mart, begun in 1959; Channel 10 Shows begun in 1957;
Spanish Village Shows; an exchange with the Santa Barbara Museum of Art;
Design Center; Deems-Martin Associates; College Grove; Home Federal Savings
and Loan Shows in 193; Festival of Art and Art Guild Fairs at Mission
Valley Center; Lloyd Furniture Store, a traveling show for the city and
county schools; a show to travel the Museum circuit; numerous panel discussions
and lectures along with special evenings, such as Shivaram dance program,
1960; the Charles Eames Program, 1961, presented jointly by the Guild
and Education Committee of the Fine Arts Society for high school students,
and many other activities too numerous to list.
In 1956 the Guild Corner was originated, a revolving monthly exhibit in
the Fine Arts Gallery, consisting of juried work. This gave every Guild
member a chance to submit during a ten-month period. On November 13, 1959,
the first Art Guild Auction, then called the “5 to 50 Auction,” was held.
This idea was repeated for five years as a money-raising event for the
Fine Arts Society. The funds were used for prize moneys and show of the
Guild’s Christmas parties, and were given free, open to the public. Large
attendances were drawn, as the parties were gay and colorful.
On October 12, 1963, the Guild conducted the “Art Collectors and Studio
Tour” through four distinguished homes where many arts were used with
interest and beauty. This tour was accepted as one of the most gracious
and successful events in the community that year.
In 1960, the first California South Show was held. Artists were invited
from Santa Barbara to the Mexican border to submit to a juried competition.
Non-Guild members were charged entry fees. This show was repeated each
succeeding spring, and invariably stirred the community with interest
and controversy. The Guild, giving up its membership spring show to make
space on the calendar for the California South, felt that a larger show
has proven extremely valuable to the community.
The Art Rental and Sales Gallery was begun in 1965.
The Art Guild celebrated the 200th Anniversary of San Diego
in 1969 with their annual California South 7 Exhibition. To mark this
occasion, Dennis Davis, Mary Ellen Long, Dixon Fish, Myrna Nobile, Joan
Thorburn, Kay Whitcomb, and Rossi Wade each designed a 10-foot banner,
which was sewn by Lilli Hill. The Banners were hung in the Fine Arts Gallery
Rotunda during the exhibition. Art Auctions, as fund raising programs,
have been held since 1959 with gay party themes to finance Guild exhibitions.
A Moulin Rouge Ball and two Home Tours, including Art Collections and
Studios, have also been held. Illusion 68, an art auction-psychedelic
party-cybernetic light show-fashion show-body painting, craft booth proved
to be “one of the most unusual events of the season” (San Diego Magazine,
Dec. 1968). Members of the Contemporary Artists of San Diego, a group consisting of Art Guild members formed in 1929, pose with their wives and other family members at the foot of the grand staircase of the Fine Arts Gallery (currently the San Diego Museum of Art) on the occasion of their first exhibit at the gallery in 1929.
Photograph courtesy of the San Diego
Museum of Art Archives.
Donal Hord studies a 3 ton block of
diorite. Photo courtesy of “The Lapidary Journal”
June, 1956 |
