Kingston Art and Music Club

Organisation

Kingston Art and Music Club

1927-11 Oct. 1932

Following the end of World War One, and throughout the 1920s, a number of concerts and art exhibitions were held in Kingston, under the joint auspices of the Richardson Bequest and the Queen’s University Art and Lecture Committee. However, in 1927, Agnes McCausland Etherington, the administrator of a trust, established by her late brother, Captain George Taylor Richardson, for the stimulation of art and music among the citizens of Kingston and the students of Queen’s University, decided it was time to organize a formally constituted society for that purpose. Consequently, on 1927 the Kingston Art and Music Club was founded. Its first President was Agnes Etherington, its Secretary was Miss R.H.M. Tullis, and its first Treasurer was Mr. A.N. Lyster.

This new organization proved to be very popular with both the inhabitants of Kingston and the students of Queen’s University alike, and within a year its membership numbered approximately seven hundred. It soon became apparent to the Executive, in particular, that an even more structured organization was necessary to handle the somewhat diversified demand for instruction, concerts, lectures, exhibitions, etc., and so three “working groups” were established in the autumn of 1928, to reflect the interests of the membership .

Of these three – music, drama, art – the last was by far the most organized; so much so, that at a meeting held on 5 October 1929, the Art Group was formally constituted, following a suggestion put forward by Mrs. Etherington. For the next three years this organization, under the leadership of Convenor, Mr. E.C. Kyte, Secretary Treasurer, Mrs. Dorothy Mahood, and Business Manager and Publicity Agent, Dr. W.D. Hay, arranged public lectures in art, sponsored and hosted exhibitions which were free to the general public, and organized regular painting sessions in the club room of the old Bank of Commerce building on King Street.

These instructional classes were held under the guidance of two instructors, a Miss Kitty Grant, and a Miss Kirby, whose services had been obtained with funds secured from the George Taylor Richardson Bequest.

While the Art Group was thriving, its parent organization was not. Kingston, like the rest of the country was suffering from the throes of the Great Depression, and many groups, the Kingston Art and Music Club (KAMC) not the least among them, were increasingly strapped for funds. At its meeting in April 1932, the Executive of KAMC proposed that the conveners of the three groups meet with the George Taylor Richardson Bequest Committee to discuss the possibility of continuing independently from the parent body.

This proposal met with a favourable response at the annual meeting of the Art Group, and so, on 11 October 1932, a meeting was held to reorganize the group. A constitution was adopted unanimously, and the Kingston Art Association (KAA) came into existence.

Kingston Art Association (11 Oct. 1932-19 Jul. 1965)

CA QUA01342

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• Englisch