 The idea behind the federal art programs was to provide work for struggling artists and foster the role of the arts in public life. Between 1933 and 1943, New Deal artists produced thousands of paintings, sculptures, prints, posters, photographs and crafts. In the years after the New Deal ended, many of these artworks were lost, sold and even thrown away. The government allocated caches of artworks to "non-federal repositories” around the country—schools, hospitals and museums, where many pieces languished in storage for decades. Today, New Deal artworks are being rediscovered, inventoried, curated and exhibited, showing a new generation what's possible when a nation considers art a public resource. |
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By Emilia Mickevicius, Ph.D.
When the Covid pandemic exacerbated the precarity of many artists’ livelihoods, we thought the time was ripe to look back on the Works Progress Administration as a model for fostering art in precarious times. My colleagues and I sifted through the San Francisco MOMA’s collection of WPA artworks, most of which hadn’t had eyes on them for years. READ MORE |
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 FDR Four Freedoms Park, Roosevelt Island, NY
Four Freedoms Park Conservancy
Sunset Garden Party!
Wednesday, September 14, 5pm-7:30pm EDT
Opening Night of VOICES OF FREEDOM (A Four Freedoms Audio Experience). TICKETS AND INFO
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 Free Virtual Program
Frances Perkins Center Homestead Day
Sunday, September 18, 2022, 5pm EDT
The Frances Perkins Center will honor three inspiring leaders who are continuing her legacy by creating new foundations for social justice in America today: Rev. William Barber, Monica Rhodes and David Ferriero. INFO AND REGISTRATION
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Living New Deal Webinars
T he Federal Theatre: Revisiting the Dream
Tuesday, October 11, 2022, 5pm-6pm PDT (8pm EDT)
The Federal Theater Project put starving unemployed actors, directors, set designers, stagehands and writers back to work. Susan Quinn and Dan Jacobs retell the story in their play called Enter Hallie, which intertwines Federal Theater Director Hallie Flanagan’s private struggles with her public quest to create innovative theater for hundreds of thousands. Susan and Dan will mix readings from the play with a discussion of Federal Theater history, as told in Quinn’s book, Furious Improvisation. Free. REGISTER
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Painting the Mail: Post Office Art of the New Deal
Tuesday, November 15, 2022 5pm-6pm PST (8pm EST)
The New Deal didn’t just decorate post offices. It celebrated them. Murals, bas reliefs and sculptures depict letters being written, mailed, sorted, transported, delivered, read and shared. These artworks are increasingly imperiled as post offices are sold and repurposed. Barbara Bernstein, the Living New Deal's Public Art Specialist and founder of the New Deal Art Registry, offers a vision for the reuse of these buildings that preserves both the artworks and the sense of community that post offices can provide. Free. REGISTER
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Some links may limit access for nonsubscribers. Please support local journalism, if you can.
Could Democrats’ bold legislation bring a repeat of the 1934 midterms?
This moment reminds us of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the historic 1934 midterm elections. There, the Democrats saw electoral gains instead of losses — a rare occurrence for the party in power.
By James Roosevelt, Jr.; Henry Scott Wallace; June Hopkins; Tomlin Perkins Coggeshall and Harold M. Ickes
The Hill, August 15, 2022
Forget FDR. Biden Is a Major President in His Own Right
When Joe Biden got his start in politics in the early 1970s, many voters still had vivid memories of Franklin Roosevelt. Far too lofty expectations have dragged down Biden's poll numbers among Democrats and distracted from all that he’s accomplished.
By Walter Shapiro
The New Republic, August 22, 2022
Biden Slowly Winning LBJ- and FDR-Like Praise as Legislative Victories Mount
Despite Republican leadership doing all they can to stunt Biden’s agenda, the president has pushed through game-changing legislation.
By Stacy M. Brown
Seattle Medium, August 11, 2022
Democrats running on Social Security make Republicans look bad
Who would have guessed that the 2022 midterm elections would turn out to be a referendum on the New Deal?
By Ruth Conniff
Wisconsin Examiner, August 16, 2022
Boston appoints its first-ever Green New Deal director
"One of the opportunities of this position is to see how we can make more connections across different departments and make those departments greater than the sum of their parts,” says Oliver Sellers-Garcia, the city's first-ever Green New Deal director.
By Ruba Shinoy and Stevee Chapman
WBUR, August 16, 2022
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Hot Dog Diplomacy
On June 11, 1939, as war loomed over Europe, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother, joined FDR and his staff at the president’s Hyde Park, New York, residence. The menu of that day included “Hot Dogs (if weather permits).” The American delicacies, along with beer, were served on a silver tray. The Royal couple reportedly asked Roosevelt how exactly one was supposed to properly eat a hot dog. “Very simple,” FDR retorted. “Push it into your mouth and keep pushing it until it is all gone.”
With thanks to Claire Barrett, History.net.
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Tell Us About Your Favorite New Deal Site
Send us a first-person story of 100 (or so) words describing the site and why you chose it. Submissions will appear in future issues of The Fireside! Be sure to include a photo (with photo credit). Send to [email protected]. Thanks!
An East Texas Treasure
In 1933, the Civilian Conservation Corps arrived at Caddo Lake State Park, a maze of sloughs, bayous and backwaters in Uncertain, Texas, hard by the Louisiana border. Beset by mud, mosquitoes and local political bickering, the men dredged the lake, built roads and trails and constructed the entrances, pavilion, shelters, cabins and campsites using materials harvested from the surrounding parkland. My father took me there on my first fishing trip six or seven years later. We met our guide near the lake. He steered our rowboat through giant bald cypress trees draped with Spanish moss. The sun was visible only briefly at noon. I came equipped with a cane pole and a bobber. I don’t remember catching any fish that day, but seventy-five years later, Caddo Lake State Park is still my favorite New Deal site.
— Milton Jordan, Georgetown, Texas
YOUR DONATIONS KEEP THE NEW DEAL SPIRIT ALIVE.
The Living New Deal thanks you for your generous support!
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“The WPA artist, in rendering his own impression of things, speaks also for the spirit of his fellow countrymen everywhere. I think the WPA artist exemplifies with great force the essential place the arts have in a democratic society such as ours.”
— President Franklin D. Roosevelt, May 10, 1939
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