ABSTRACT
The art schools make contact with and reach down into the public schools in various ways. The picture of recruitment in excess of demand is perhaps particularly striking for another art world, that of drama — the pull of Broadway and Hollywood has so often been portrayed — but probably it is not less characteristic of music and visual arts. Parents of various strata introduce their offspring to art stressing humanistic, hobbyist and other values; but probably not many parents conceive of the visual arts as a propitious locale on which to fight and battle for class and occupational success. Attendance at galleries and museums, with or without parents, plays no discernable part in recruitment; and, in fact, a rare art student reports having any art “in his background.” Much of the rather “open” recruitment in art is reflected in the various gentle practices and policies of many of the American schools.
