been held each year since 1896 with the exception of the 
five years of the Great War. Averaging about three hundred 
paintings, these exhibitions have been recognized as among 
the most important held either in Europe or America. They 
present paintings representative of the best standards of art 
and taste, works both by artists of established reputation 
and by young men and women who have yet to become 
known in the art world. These exhibitions, which are in 
the nature of a clearing house of the best in American and 
European art, attract many critics, artists, amateurs, and 
lealers from all parts of the United States. 
The twenty-seventh Carnegie Institute International Ex- 
hibition opened on October 18 and continued through Decem- 
Yer 10, 1927. 
Of course, in a general way all the activities of the depart- 
ment are educational, but more than that, it strives to edu- 
cate, in the stricter sense of the word. the young and old 
alike. 
For the children the department conducts this work 
especially through the agency of the public and parochial 
schools, where it has proved of unusual importance in the 
development of public taste in the community. The students 
of the entire eighth grade of the public and parochial schools, 
numbering almost eight thousand, come three times during 
the school year with their teachers, as part of their school 
work, to study the permanent collections of the Department 
of Fine Arts. 
For adults the main work of education consists of a 
series of morning and evening lectures given during the 
winter and spring in the lecture hall of the Institute. The 
majority of these talks are informal in character. The main 
purpose of the lectures is to popularize the refinements of 
nfe. 
DEPARTMENT OF THE MUSEUM 
The museum occupies the greater portion of the eastern 
side of the main building, with a floor space at its command of 
152,074 square feet. In its activities it covers the natural 
sciences and the applied arts. Fifteen sections are already