In this volume Bowen recounts his work as Exhibitions Officer at the Imperial Institute from 1953 to 1962. It discusses the history and management of the institute, working conditions, and the planning and organisation of exhibitions. Bowen also discusses the production of maps to accompany Kenneth Bradley, ed. ‘The Living Commonwealth’ (London, 1961). There are also further notes on Austin Spare who died in 1956. Bowen describes the renaming of the institute as the Commonwealth Institute in 1958, its move to a new building in Kensington High Street, which opened in 1962, and the programme of exhibitions mounted in its early years. There are also notes and photographs from a visit to Malta in connection with a photographic exhibition of Maltese archaeological sites and buildings.

The volume includes texts of the following articles and lectures by Bowen:

‘Contemporary Art in the Commonwealth’, ‘Journal of the Royal Society of Arts’, Dec. 1964, 15-29

‘Painting and Sculpture in Malaya’, Royal Commonwealth Society Summer School, 1967

‘Commonwealth Painting and Sculpture: a London View’, Royal Commonwealth Society Centenary Journal, 1968

‘Painting: an Influence for Good’, National Assembly of the Canadian Society for Education Through Art, St. John’s, Newfoundland, 7 Oct. 1969