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 President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the landmark Historic Sites Act of 1935, a national policy to preserve historic sites, buildings and objects of national significance. The National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), enacted in 1966, extended these protections and established the National Register of Historic Places. Section 106 of the NHPA is one of our nation’s most effective historic preservation tools. It requires federal agencies to evaluate how proposed development projects can impact historic properties. President Trump has run up against Section 106 in his attempts at building a triumphal arch, remaking the White House Ballroom and renovating the Kennedy Center and other sites in Washington DC. Now, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, stacked with Trump appointees, proposes to change the law in the name of “streamlining” existing protections. These changes strip protections from not only historic sites and buildings, but also from national parks, public lands, Native American sacred sites and view sheds nationwide.
TAKE ACTION: The Living New Deal continues to fight the mounting threats to New Deal art and architecture in Washington DC and beyond. You can help. Contact your member of Congress to oppose the changes to Section 106 that would weaken the National Historic Preservation Act, and to support HR 9689, the PRESERVE Act (Protecting Resources and Ensuring Stewardship of Enduring Records of Visual Expression). LEARN MORE
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By Tess Taylor
I started retracing Dorothea Lange’s routes, visiting the places she had once photographed. I found the site of a farm where Lange had once photographed migrant carrot pickers, now a detention center holding 782 people. Past and present aren’t separate so much as stacked like grape crates—decades piled on top of each other, a chorus of voices from the past of people navigating displacement today. READ MORE
By Kevin Baker
Paintings by WPA artist Abram August Champanier once decorated a New York hospital ward filled with children in long-term care for tuberculosis. Reimagined In Champanier’s hand, characters from Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland inhabit that other wonderland—New York City. READ MORE |
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Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Mike Wallace was best known for his magisterial work, Gotham, a three-volume history of New York City. Wallace, who died on July 5th at the age of 83, served on the Advisory Board of the Living New Deal.
READ MORE
 Christopher Breiseth, a driving force in preserving the legacy of the New Deal, passed away on June 27th at age 89. Chris connected the New Deal’s legacy to present-day challenges, including in his role as Board Vice President of the National New Deal Preservation Association (NNDPA). READ MORE
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Living New Deal In-Person Events
Tuesday, September 15, 2026, 5:30pm EDT
WPA artist Abram Champanier’s “Alice of Wonderland Visiting New York,” a mural series commissioned to brighten the children’s ward of Manhattan's old Gouverneur Hospital, epitomizes the spirit of the New Deal. The Living New Deal’s New York Chapter will host a tour of the exhibition, led by museum curator Dr. Lilly Tuttle. Limited to 30 guests. Tickets $50. RSVP required. The MCNY exhibition runs through September 27, 2026. INFO
LOCATION: Museum of the City of New York, 1220 5th Avenue at 103rd St, Manhattan
 "Last West: Roadsongs for Dorothea Lange"
Join the Living New Deal at these upcoming Bay Area events for Last West, a multi-media production based on Lange’s journals and photographs that transports audiences along the dusty roads of Depression-era California. INFO
Marin Theatre Company
Thursday, September 10, 2026, 5:30pm
A behind-the-curtain look at the developing production of Last West, with playwright Tess Taylor, director Ciera Els and the creative team at Marin Theatre Company.
RSVP required.
LOCATION: Marin Theatre Company, 297 Miller Avenue, Mill Valley, CA
Western Hills Garden
Saturday, September 12, 2026, 5:00-8:00pm
Tess Taylor and director Cierra Els in conversation about the voices and stories at the heart of the play.
Reading and reception. Tickets $45. INFO
LOCATION: Western Hills Garden, 16250 Coleman Valley Road, Occidental, CA
UCB Graduate School of Journalism
Friday, October 16, 2026, 5:30–7:00pm
Tess Taylor and photographer Ken Light discuss Lange’s life and archive.
Program and Reception, FREE and open to the public. INFO
LOCATION: 121 Northgate Hall, Room #5860, Berkeley, CA
Oakland Museum of California
Saturday, October 17, 2026, 1:00-3:00pm
Gallery chats and Last West pop-up performances.
Spotlight Sunday, October 18, 2026, 1:00 and 3:00pm
Two full performances of Last West: Roadsongs for Dorothea Lange
(Book signing follows the 3pm performance). Free with museum admission. INFO
LOCATION: Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak Street, Oakland, CA
Mill Valley Public Library
Thursday, Oct 22, 2026, 6:30-8:00pm
An inside look into Marin Theatre Company's ambitious new production of Last West as it prepares for its full Marin run (and a sneak preview of the play). With Tess Taylor and MTC’s executive artistic director Lance Gardner.
FREE. REGISTER (Registration opens September 28)
LOCATION: Mill Valley Public Library, 375 Throckmorton Avenue, Mill Valley, CA
More In-Person Events
 California Preservation Foundation
"Doors Open California"
Weekends in September, 2026
"Doors Open California" is the largest statewide celebration of historic places in California. Enthusiasts of historic architecture, design and cultural heritage will have access to over 75 sites across the state on the weekends during the month of September 2026. $20 for access to all sites. (Students and Children Free). INFO
 Creative Philadelphia Art Gallery"A Federal Job in the Arts – CETA and Philadelphia in the 1970s"
Through October 2, 2026
The exhibition, curated by Blaise Tobia and Virginia Maksymowicz of the CETA Arts Legacy Project, highlights the significance of the federally funded Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) and features photographs, prints and artworks from local artists who worked under the program. FREE. INFO
LOCATION: City Hall, Room #116, Philadelphia, PA
 The James Gallery
Curated by Molly Garfinkel and Jodi Waynberg, this exhibition to examines the national impact of CETA and how a little-known federal jobs program transformed cultural infrastructure, supported more than 30,000 artists and cultural workers and reimagined artistic labor as a public good. FREE. INFO
LOCATION: CUNY Graduate Center, 364 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY
Upcoming Living New Deal Webinars
 “Treasures Lost, Treasures Found-New Deal Murals at NYC Health+ Hospitals"
With Eric Wei, Ryan Patrick and Rick Luftglass
Tuesday, October 6, 2026, 6:00pm EDT (3:00pm PDT)
“Materials of Relaxation,” a restored 9-panel mural by WPA artist David Margolis in the rotunda at Bellevue Hospital is among 11 historic WPA-era murals that survive today as part of the Arts In Medicine collection of the NYC Health + Hospitals system. This webinar will provide an overview of the city's WPA hospital murals—lost and found—and the stories behind them.
Eric Wei is CEO of NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue. Ryan Patrick is the Director of Public Art at Arts in Medicine and Rick Luftglass is the Executive Director of the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund.
FREE. REGISTER
 "One Ordinary Man"
With Dr. June Hopkins and Steve Vesce in conversation about Harry Hopkins
Tuesday, October 13, 2026, 5:30-6:30pm PDT
Dr. June Hopkins is Harry Hopkins granddaughter and Professor of History Emerita and the author of Harry Hopkins: Sudden Hero, Brash Reformer and other scholarly works. Steve Vesce is the award-winning author of One Ordinary Man, a novel based on the true story of Harry Hopkins leading up to and including World War II. FREE. REGISTER
 Putting It to the Test: The New Deal Faces a Tumultuous Election
Tuesday, October 27, 2026, 5:00pm-6:00pm, PDT
FDR had won by a landslide at the nadir of the Depression in 1932. The country was in turmoil in lead up to the 1936 election. He and his stumbling New Deal would again be put to the test—with some polls predicting a runaway Republican victory. Did the election of 1936 presage this year’s hotly contested midterms?
Historian Christopher W. Shaw is the author of Money, Power, and the People: The American Struggle to Make Banking Democratic, and two books on preserving the US Postal Service, with Kevin Baker, director of the New York City Chapter of the Living New Deal. FREE. REGISTER |
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Some links may limit access for nonsubscribers. Please support local journalism, if you can.
The Trump administration is in the process of making it much easier to demolish historic buildings and landscapes not just in Washington but nationwide. If the administration succeeds in making its proposed changes to Section 106, it will take a wrecking ball to the historic preservation movement in the United States.
By Paul Goldberger
The New York Times, August 9, 2026
Park Service Finds Trump’s Arch Could Detract from Dozens of Historic Places
Mr. Trump has shown no interest in the most obvious remedies — scaling down the project, or building it somewhere else. The administration is pushing to overhaul the rules governing historic reviews nationwide, curbing public participation and the kinds of places and harms that would be considered.
By Emily Badger
The New York Times, August 3, 2026
New Bill Aims to Protect Publicly Commissioned Art in Federal Buildings
The PRESERVE Act focuses on protecting art during the federal building disposal process, which is overseen by the General Services Administration. A statement from the bill's co-author Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) references the Wilbur J. Cohen Building, an architecturally significant limestone structure that contains New Deal murals and other public artwork.
Art Forum, July 20, 2026
Trump’s 250 Grand Prix Is a Really Bad Idea
It’s hard to imagine a worse place than the National Mall for an Indy 500 race. Apart from the National Gallery, the National Archives, the Air and Space Museum, and the Cohen building, the Freedom 250 Grand Prix route will roar past the National Gallery’s outdoor sculpture garden, the Museum of the American Indian, the Hirshhorn, Frank Gehry’s Eisenhower Memorial, and the National Museum of Natural History.
By Timothy Noah
The New Republic, July 31, 2026
Saving Alice’s Wonderland in New York
Champanier’s was one of some 2,500 murals commissioned by the Federal Art Project for public buildings nationwide between 1935 and 1943 as part of the WPA’s New Deal program putting people to work. But in the 86 years since the Alice Mural was installed it has seen further adventures, including a guerrilla-style rescue operation led by a renegade conservator in 1981 from the abandoned hospital as it was being gutted.
By Hilarie M. Sheets
The New York Times, June 5, 2026
Save the Mothers’ Building: The slow race to rescue an historic landmark before its WPA-era art is overtaken by the sands of time
A city landmark, the Mothers’ Building at the San Francisco Zoo is a monument to WPA-era art. The building was embellished with mosaics and murals by women artists working for the New Deal. Though listed on the National Register of Historic Places, red tape and neglect are hastening its decline.
By Julie Zigoris
San Francisco Gazetteer, March 16, 2026
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"Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough."
—President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Radio Address for the Mobilization of Human Needs
October 13, 1940
YOUR DONATIONS KEEP THE NEW DEAL SPIRIT ALIVE.
The Living New Deal thanks you for your generous support!
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