Although the College has associations of everyone from sharpshooters to bird-lovers, the artists have hitherto remained quiet and unorganized. Inspired by last year's display at Winthrop House, the exhibit opening today in the Germanic Museum is the first general cooperative effort by Harvard's undergraduate painters. They have finally decided to make their presence known, and give fame and fortune a chance. It gets pretty tiresome daubing away in a lonely attic unapplauded.

Sixty paintings by about forty Harvard and Radcliffe amateurs are on view. Only a dozen of the contributors intend to make a career of art, and comparatively few are Fine Arts concentrators. The rest merely make a hobby of the brush, but feel that something comparable to the Glee Club is needed to supplement the lecture hall. An attempt to organize a water-color club a few years ago didn't get very far, but Winthrop's successful exhibit of her own artists' work suggested a better way to exchange ideas. The students who have hung up canvasses are hoping to gain by the criticism not only of University connoisseurs but of visitors from Greater Boston as well. In addition they are looking forward to the satisfaction and encouragement that come from a little recognition, and have no objection to making a few sales.

However, the Exhibit Committee intends primarily to show that there is a strong interest here in active painting. Whether or not the four week exhibition becomes annual as its founders hope, it will explode the old myth that Harvard is interested in art only from the viewpoint of scholarly criticism. More important, it may uncover much talent that has till now blushed unseen behind dormitory walls.