Page:The Academy Of the Fine Arts and Its Future, Edward Hornor Coates, 24 January 1890.djvu/18

 If any one be inclined to give credence to the superstition that the Academy's directors are sufficient unto to themselves, and arrogate to themselves control and responsibility for all art in Philadelphia, a protest and denial must here be entered. The Academy eighty-five years ago, was founded, fostered and built up by the citizens for the public good. It was the pride and enthusiastic boast of the entire community. The heart of every man who travelled in foreign lands and among the treasures of the old world, kept turning homeward with the thought of what could be secured for that institution. Why should it not be so to-day? It is not the possession of a clique, nor of a body of directors happening to be in the management. They are but trustees of interests which are of great and real importance. They want the enthusiastic sympathy and the criticism, if manly and sincere, of every man and woman who has at heart the artistic welfare of the commonwealth; and it may be added that, after the manner of Brutus, they hold their offices subject to the election of more competent, more public-spirited, more devoted art lovers than themselves.

With regard to the permanent collection, the future opens out before us a broad avenue of opportunity. It is no longer true, as William B. Reed once said, that Philadelphia has but one statue—that of Henry Clay on the front of an iron founder's shop. Of the past we speak only with grateful appreciation, but when will our Catharine Wolfs, our Marquands and Seneys become emulous to make ours a great and noted museum—a museum worthy of our own admiration and devotion, as well as that of pilgrims from distant cities of the country? When shall our walls be filled 18