Friends of the South Australian School of Art Inc.

Royal South Australian Society of Arts KALORI Magazine

The Royal South Australian Society of Arts (RSASA) has played a key role in the history and development of the South Australian School of Art. Formed in 1856 at the instigation of artist and teacher, Charles Hill, the Society of Arts determined three objectives: to set up a school of design; to create a permanent art gallery for the exhibition and display of art works and to hold regular 'conversaziones' about art and art making for the benefit of all South Australians. In 1861, the society achieved the first of these objectives.

The School of Design, which became the South Australian School of Art (SASA) in 1958, began operation in an upstairs classroom of the two-storey South Australian Institute Building, which was located on the corner of North Terrace and Kintore Avenue, Adelaide, where it stands today. The gallery and offices of RSASA continue to operate from rooms in this very same site. In 1891, the School of Design, now the School of Painting, Design and Technical Art relocated further down North Terrace to the Exhibition Building, where it remained until 1963, when the building was demolished.

The Society of Arts remained at the Institute Building to continue its work of exhibiting and promoting the work of South Australian artists even as it does today. It was in 1935 that the society gained approval to include the 'Royal' prefix as part of its name. In 1959, its then President, Paul Beadle, who was also Head (1959-1961) of the South Australian School of Art, approved the publication of the first of its quarterly magazines which became known as Kalori - an Aboriginal word meaning 'message stick'.

As part of my research for the SASA History Project, particularly for the years when SASA was located at Stanley Street, North Adelaide from 1963 to 1978, I gained the permission of then Acting Director RSASA, Bev Bills, to scan all issues of Kalori that were published during the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. With this achieved, copies of the scans were sent to RSASA for eventual inclusion on their website. Given the significance of these Kalori magazines to the SASA History Project, it was agreed that the Friends of SASA should also provide access to these historical records. All of the issues of Kalori that have been scanned by Friends SASA will therefore now be added to this site as and when time allows.