Pictures for Schools: visual education in the classroom and the art gallery
An image of one of Richard's paintings for children, The Birthday Tea Table (1949), has been included in a paper published in an international journal, Paedagogica Historica. The paper is an overview and analysis of the Pictures for Schools programme, an art patronage scheme set up in 1947 which encouraged schools and other educational establishments to buy affordable original works of art and to integrate them into a participatory method of art education.
Richard's interest in children's relationships with paintings emerged through the 1930s, leading him to paint a set of pictures with children in mind and exhibiting them at the Redfern in 1945. The Pictures for Schools annual exhibitions provided him with a perfect way to continue that committment.
It is an important accolade for author, Dr Natalie Bradbury, to have her paper accepted by Paedagogica Historica. Her story about Pictures for Schools deserves telling as widely as possible, and it is very welcome that Richard is associated with it.