Exhibitions: Art in Industry

November 30, 1940: Work done by the Art Departments of the Vocational High Schools of New York City, arranged as an exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum called “Art in Industry,” will go on public view Saturday, November 30 after an invitation preview on Friday afternoon, to continue through January 12. During the exhibition there will be special events on December 7, December 14 and January 4, consisting of a lecture, demonstrations, two gallery tours and a fashion show.

The exhibition is divided into four parts, and the work of the schools is merged under general headings rather than by designation of each school’s work. In the first gallery are shown historic costume research and modern adaptations from it; in the second gallery are original costume design, millinery design and art related to beauty culture; in the third gallery, commercial art and work for the printing trades; and in the fourth gallery, industrial design.

The Art Department of the Vocational High Schools classifies its work in two categories: that in which an art course is given in relation to a trade, such as dressmaking; and when it is given as a trade, such as fashion illustration.

This exhibition is arranged to show how the teaching of each trade necessarily depends on art as an important phase. The Vocational High Schools have for their objective the training of efficient trade workers. Fifty per cent of the time is spent in the trade class, twenty-five per cent is devoted to academic subjects, and the other twenty-five per cent to related subjects, one of which is art. The art work is therefore planned to contribute to the efficiency of the students in their chosen trade. Where art is taught as a trade, it is not included with the related subjects.

Variations from drawing and color work throughout the exhibition are such exhibits as confectioners designs for decorating holiday cakes and Easter eggs, art metal work in the form of platters, trays and dishes, jewelry designs, and pottery flower vases. In the boys’ industrial section are radio sets without the enclosing cabinets, a one-cylinder air-cooled engine about 10 inches tall, wood patterns and their accompanying working drawings, and a model of a small house. Interspersed throughout the exhibition are small dioramas of window displays, and full-size costumes on mannequins which were especially designed for a school play, called “Wonderland,” a modern version of “Alice in Wonderland,” in which animal-head masks also figured.

The result of the study of historic costumes is shown in color sketches and small models of costumes. The models are on twelve- to eighteen-inch-high dolls and half-size mannequins, which are dressed in reproductions of historic costumes and next to them modern adaptations from them.

In the costume design section are original drawings and actual dresses made by students, and millinery, with actual hats on model heads. As improvement in personal appearance is considered an important trade asset as well as a trade, there are exhibits having to do with beauty culture which include three physiological masks showing the bones, muscles and arteries of the face. Still other exhibits are those relating to garment machine operating.

The third section is made up of commercial art and work for the printing trades; fashion illustrations in several media for newspapers and magazines; drawings for advertisements in pencil, pen and ink, gouache, air-brush and the silk screen process; layouts, lettering cover designs and book end-papers. The printing trades section has a display of books designed and made by the students, and wood and linoleum blocks cut by them for color printing.

The fourth section, called industrial design, covers the metal trades for boys. One exhibit shows actual machine tools made in the school shops. The balance of the section is made up of mechanical drawings, blue prints and architectural renderings, and a group of color drawings and sketches in which packages and other objects are represented that fall into the class of industrial design. Photography is also shown in this section.

The program during the course of the exhibition will consist of demonstrations by teachers and students, of courses offered at the New York School of Industrial Art, in the Lecture Hall, at 10:30, on December 7. This will cover commercial art, photography, jewelry design, costume design and fashion illustration, air brush, silk screen process and industrial design. On December 14 there will be a conducted tour through the exhibition galleries, from 10:30 to 12, by faculty representatives of the Brooklyn High School of Automotive Trades, Brooklyn High School for Metal Trades, Brooklyn High School for Specialty Trades, and East New York Vocational High School. In the Sculpture Court at the Museum at 10:30 on January 4, a fashion show will be given of garments designed and worn by students of the Brooklyn High School of Women’s Garment Trades, and at 11:30 the same day there will be a conducted tour by faculty members of the Brooklyn High School of Homemaking.

This exhibition was initiated under the inspiration and guidance of the late William E. Grady, leader of the Division of Vocational High Schools. It is being sponsored by Honorable Fiorello H. La Guardia, Mr. Ellsworth B. Buck, Mr. Edward C. Blum, Mr. Alberto C. Bonaschi, Mr. Stephen F. Bayne, Miss Regina C. M. Burke, Mr. John J. Brennan, Dr. Harold G. Campbell, Mr. William R. Crowley, Mrs. Betty Hawley Donnelly, Mr. Frederic Ernst, Mr. David M. Freudenthal, Mr. Vincent J. Ferris, Mr. Oakley Furney, Mrs. William H. Good, Mr. Forest Grant, Dr. Jacob Greenberg, Mr. Daniel Paul Higgins, Dr. Elias Lieberman, Mrs. Johanna M. Lindlof, Mrs. James Marshall, Miss Margaret J. McCooey, Mr. James G. McDonald, Miss Edith L. Nichols, Mr. Laurance P. Roberts, Mr. Morris Siegel, Mr. Stephen F. Voorhees, Mr. John E. Wade, Mr. Lewis A. Wilson, Vocational High School Teachers Association of New York City, Vocational High School Principals Association of New York City, and the Brooklyn Museum.

The Vocational High Schools participating in the exhibition are: Jane Addams Vocational High School, Samuel Gompers Vocational High School, Brooklyn High School of Homemaking, Brooklyn High School for Metal Trades, Brooklyn High School of Women’s Garment Trades, East New York Vocational High School of Automotive Trades, Manhattan High School of Aviation Trades, Central High School of Needle Trades, Metropolitan Vocational High School. Also Yorkville High School of Women’s Service Trades, New York Vocational High School for Boys, New York School of Printing, The School of Industrial Art, Food Trades Vocational High School, McKee Vocational High School and Manhattan High School of Women’s Garment Trades.

Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1939 - 1941. 10-12/1940, 248-50. View Original 1 . View Original 2 . View Original 3

January 3, 1941: Girl students of the Brooklyn High School of Women’s Garment Trades will put on a fashion show of their own work at 10:30 on Saturday morning, January 4, in the Sculpture Court at the Brooklyn Museum.

Spring suits designed, draped and made by the girls for themselves to suit their own personalities will be modeled by them. Sport, day and evening apparel will be displayed together with some graduation dresses. Fashions for southern wear will be stressed.

A student will serve as narrator and will comment on the costumes as they are shown.

The show will be conducted entirely by students of the Brooklyn High School of Women’s Garment Trades. It will include the work of the Garment Machine Operating, Dressmaking and Millinery departments. The students are being trained to enter these industries and these are the clothes they have produced while they are learning their trades. There will be no attempt to show the sketches of the garments.

This is the last special event to be held in connection with the exhibition “Art in Industry”, now current at the Museum, arranged by the Vocational High Schools of the City. Following the fashion show there will be a gallery tour of the exhibition, conducted by a faculty member of the Brooklyn High School of Homemaking.

Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1939 - 1941. 01-03/1941, 001. View Original