December 1909: Glasgow School of Art – Opening Celebrations – Some Speeches and Votes of Thanks – Sir James Fleming, Sir John Stirling-Maxwell, and Charles Rennie Mackintosh

An article on page five of The Glasgow Herald, on Thursday the 16th of December, 1909, reports:

 

“The celebrations to mark the completion of the Glasgow School of Art began yesterday. In the afternoon the new

buildings were formally opened, and in the evening there was a reception and the first performance of a ‘Masque.'”

 

Sir James Fleming, the School’s chairman, reminisced about his own attendance at the institution, and discussed

its many achievements, the students, The Glasgow School of Painting, the Corporation of Glasgow, Fra Newbery,

Scotch Education Department, and the people in the city who donated to the new building’s construction fund.

 

Sir John Stirling-Maxwell:

 

“… moved a vote of thanks to the architect, Mr Mackintosh. He said he would deserve well of his generation

were it only because he had made them think. He had shown that it was possible to have a good building

without plastering it over with the traditional, expensive, and often ugly ornament. (Hear, hear.) Mr Mackintosh

had the real faculty of being able to adapt a building for the purpose for which it was really intended. The Glasgow

School of Art was a conspicuous success of that kind. (Applause.)

 

“Mr Mackintosh acknowledged the compliment, and on behalf of the contractors presented Sir James Fleming with

a handsome casket containing a scroll signed by all the contractors, and recording their esteem for Sir James.”

 

 

An editorial, headed A Home of Art., is on page eight of the newspaper.

 

 

 

 

George Fairfull-Smith, August 2023.