HISTORY OF AN ART SOCIETY
DUDLEY SOCIETY OF ARTISTS 1928 TO 2020
ORIGINS AND INFLUENCES
The original Society was formed in 1928. It was during that year that C.V. Mackenzie, a well known artist and art teacher at Dudley Grammar School, together with other artists and craftsmen, including Ivo Shaw, Principal of Dudley Art School, formed what they called ‘The Dudley and District Art Circle’. Its first meeting was held at the popular Cranage’s tea rooms in Dudley High Street and from its beginning, membership was around seventy in number.
(Include Watercolour by MacKenzie )
 
The membership included a nucleus of distinguished local 1930’s artists who were all keen to share events and exhibitions together. Some exhibited further afield as did MacKenzie at the Royal Academy.
At this ‘between the Wars’ period Dudley was benefitting from an artistic legacy which was
begun when a young graduate of Birmingham College of Arts and Crafts, Marion Richardson (1892-1946) became the art teacher at Dudley Girls High School. Her career in Dudley lasted until the late 1920’s and during her time at the school she put the town ‘on the map’ both nationally and internationally, with her revolutionary way of teaching art to children.
Richardson treated children as artists and valued their pictures as works of art. Their work was exhibited widely as she lectured about her ideas and was shown in London at the Independent Galleries and the Omega Workshops, sponsored by artist and critic Roger Fry.
This friendship with Fry led to him donating his large painting ‘Envy’ (1925) to the Girls’ High School and which now hangs in the hall of St James’s Academy.
(Include Roger Fry ‘Envy’ oil. )
 
WIDER EFFECTS
In addition to such influences as Richardson there was an interest in the town to modernise and at this time the new Town Hall, Library and Council Offices were built in the town centre. It is also significant that as part of that was commissioned a very large mural, as a backdrop to the Town Hall stage, by artist Hans Feibusch (1898-1998).
(Include Hans Feibusch mural.)
Dudley Zoological Society has its home in the grounds of the Castle which dominates the
town. In its development of the Zoo in 1936-37 it commissioned a London architectural
group Tecton to provide animal enclosures in the old mine workings on the site. This group
had made a name for itself in designing buildings for London Zoo. Here, in Dudley, they greatly improved on that reputation giving Dudley more modernist buildings than London Zoo. Here in the town is an outstanding collection in the International Style, combining alongside the Castle the old town and the new.
( Include Tecton entrance gates for Zoo.)
It must be the case that the Art Circle benefitted from this background of artistic interest and influence and, in turn, became itself a source of influence in the town – not least with its annual exhibition, which, in turn influenced the Council to sponsor its own ‘Local Artists Exhibition’ which in turn became ‘Midart’; but that is another story. These local shows were judged by visiting celebrities such as L.S. Lowry.
In this early period, Art Circle member and Dudley Art School & Birmingham Art School
alumnus Percy Shakespeare (1906-1943), considered by many to have been the finest artist that Dudley has produced, was killed while on active service at the naval base HMS Vernon, Roedean, East Sussex. Previous to its sad closure a gallery at Dudley Art Gallery was dedicated to his work. Very appropriately, it was in one of the rooms where he studied as a student. In his short artistic career, as well as teaching, Percy had works accepted for the Royal Academy between 1933 and 1940 and the Paris Salon in 1935 and 1938. No small
achievement. Sadly, the Art Circle lost several other members during the war but some, such as Percy Hipkiss (who had served in India) returned and gave presentations of their experiences and showed sketches they had produced on active service.
( Include Examples of work by Percy Shakespeare and Percy Hipkiss)
  
DEVELOPMENTS
During the early years, as well as painting, the Art Circle promoted a wide range of arts and crafts, including wood carving, glassware, bookbinding, weaving, pottery, heraldry and a host of associated activities. There were also the regular features of practical
demonstrations and what were known as ‘Lantern Lectures’ (the forerunner of slide
presentations) given by visiting speakers.
In 1948, C.V. MacKenzie, still chairman of the Art Circle after twenty years and also Curator of Dudley Art Gallery, died at the age of 55. The Town Council purchased, and still has six of his watercolours which they purchased from his memorial exhibition, held at Dudley Grammar School (now St. James’s Academy) and Dudley Art School.
Following his death, Miss Tivey, who had become treasurer in the 1930’s followed him as Chairman, a post she then held for over 40 years. MacKenzie had been honorary curator of the Art Gallery and he was followed as full-time employed curator by local artist Robin
Jennings who, in the 1950’s also served as the Treasurer of the Art Circle. Robin, a native of
Old Hill, at that time lived in Kinver and regularly started out for work in Dudley early
enough to paint en-route. After leaving the curator’s job Jennings became a postman in
order to achieve more time to paint, going on to become very successful with ‘sell-out’
exhibitions in London and elsewhere.
( Include Example of work by Robin Jennings) 

PROGRESS
In 1957 a Friday Sketching club was formed for ‘the purpose of drawing from costume life’. This was, no doubt, the start of the portrait evenings which are a feature of the Society to this day. At that time, what were known as Programme Meetings were held once a month, held separately from the sketching nights. These were the visiting speaker and demonstration nights. Eventually the events were merged to weekly meetings, with one of the meetings each month devoted to prominent artists, both local and national, to make presentations and demonstrations. In this period, perhaps the Society’s most outstanding and influential artist was Percy Hipkiss. He was an exceptional talent with his day job as a
professional designer for the jewelry trade and he did much to enhance the standing of the Society until his death in 1995. During the Society’s annual Art Exhibition, one of the
Society’s most prestigious prizes, The Percy Hipkiss Award, is dedicated to him. 

The Dudley and District Art Circle lasted for over 50 years and by 1979 membership was still in the seventies. Some of the officers who had organised things for many years such as Miss E. Smart, had handed on the ‘reins’ to others such as Raymond Whitehouse. She had been secretary of the Art Circle for seventeen years when she retired in 1976. Because the membership consisted mostly of painters, it was thought, therefore, to be appropriate to amend the Constitution and change the name of the society to ‘The Dudley Society of Artists’.
Raymond Whitehouse was one of a number of members at that time who made the
Society’s name known outside Dudley. He was featured in an ITV documentary ‘Waterworld’.
PROGRAMME and FUTURE OUTLOOK 

The Dudley Society of Artists meets and exhibits regularly. The Society home is now St. James’s Academy in St. James’s Road, Dudley. We meet weekly, have a clothed portrait model and demonstration sessions. There are several members that meet to work en plein air and this continues throughout the summer. Our members include a variety of artists – painters, sculptors, textile artists, printmakers, and signwriters. There is a big variety of
working styles and the membership incorporates both amateur and professionally trained members.

With the Dudley Town Gallery closed in 2016 the Society has looked for other exhibition
venues and has established a regular small exhibition at The Dudley Canal Trust
headquarters known as The Portal. In addition to that we have exhibited at Himley Hall and we also enjoyed a summer sketching day with exhibition and tea party at Stourton Castle in June 2019. At the end of the Covid Pandemic Crisis in September 2021 we held a one day ‘pop-up’ exhibition at The Crown, Wolverhampton Street, Dudley. This was held as part of the national Heritage Open Days which are held to celebrate heritage buildings. We partnered with West Midlands Historic Buildings Trust for this event which was visited by about 60 persons on the day and members made some significant sales.


Some members have achieved success in exhibitions locally, regionally and nationally. recently our late member Paul Hipkiss (who was the Editor of our newsletter and son of
Percy) has had prints exhibited at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition on several
occasions. Our honorary member Robert Perry is featured in displays at Birmingham
Museum and Art Gallery and other members regularly exhibit at The Royal Birmingham
Society of Artists, Weston Park, Staffordshire and Compton Verney. Our President held
exhibitions in the Dean’s Chapel, Worcester Cathedral in 2012 and 2019 and St. Martins in
the Bull Ring Birmingham 2015.

Several members are elected members of Royal Birmingham Society of Artists and
Birmingham Watercolour Society. Members also offer their expertise to provide
demonstrations to other societies and to provide classes for those wishing to learn.
Charitable activities are also undertaken. These include things like creating cut-out figures for church Nativity Scenes or painting murals for charities such as YWCA.
With its varied and experienced membership the Society continues to play its part in the
town, and the wider Black Country, and we trust it will continue also to earn a good
reputation as a body bringing some celebrity to Dudley.
Dudley Society of Artists will be celebrating its centenary in 2028 and we look forward to
many years beyond that.
Philip Adams MA.
(June 2023)