 The Federal Art Project (FAP), (1935-1943), provided jobs to 10,000 struggling artists. They created thousands of artworks, including roughly 2,500 murals that adorn many public buildings—city halls, schools, post offices—to this day. The FAP muralists were encouraged to depict American life and culture so as to inspire and promote a national identity. But the results were not without controversy. Then, as now, America was ideologically and culturally divided. FDR proclaimed public art as a hallmark of democracy. Nearly nine decades later, the meaning of art—and democracy—is in the eye of the beholder.
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By Kate B. Littleboy
WPA artist Victor Arnautoff’s mural series at a San Francisco high school has been a lightning rod for controversy ever since it was completed in 1936. “Life of Washington" narrowly survived a recent challenge when critics demanded that the school board “Paint it down.” READ MORE |
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 A Benefit for the Living New Deal
Thursday, November 10, 2022, 6:45 pm PST
The Roxie, San Francisco’s Iconic Nonprofit Cinema
"TOWN DESTROYER"
A Film by Deborah Kaufman and Alan Snitow
The mural, "Life of Washington,” at George Washington High School became a media firestorm when some students and parents demanded that the Board of Education destroy the New Deal-era artwork for what they say are “racist” images. A panel discussion and audience Q&A follow the screening. Ticket sales benefit the Living New Deal. The Roxie, 3117 16th Street, San Francisco. TICKETS & INFORMATION
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Giving Tuesday is an annual "global generosity movement” on the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving. It encourages us all to support the organizations that contribute to the betterment of our communities. As 2022 comes to the close, please consider including the Living New Deal in your year-end charitable giving plan. Your gift makes our work possible. We are grateful for your support. DONATE |
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Living New Deal Webinars
via Zoom
Painting the Mail: Post Office Art of the New Deal
Tuesday, November 15, 2022, 5pm-6pm PST (8pm EST)
with Barbara Bernstein
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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" TOWN DESTROYER"
with filmmakers Deborah Kaufman and Alan Snitow
Tuesday, November 29, 2022, 5pm PST
Victor Arnautoff’s mural, “Life of Washington,” has been debated for decades. Denounced as racist by some, others see it as a critique of America’s founding myths. What is the role of art in reflecting America to itself? Join the conversation. Free. REGISTER
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Reality Makes Them Dream: Revisiting New Deal-Era Photography
with Josie Johnson and Emilia Mickevicius
Tuesday, December 6, 2022, 5pm-6pm PST
Photography from the New Deal-era is often associated with mirroring the bleak realities of the Great Depression. Yet, the photography is remarkably varied, using the raw material of the visible world as a point of departure for viewers’ imaginations. Join us as we examine how the works of WPA photographers like Sybil Anikeef, Sonya Noskowiak, Edward Weston and others complicate and add dimension to understanding art and culture in the US in the 1930s.
Josie Johnson, Ph.D. is the Capital Group Foundation Curatorial Fellow for Photography at the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University. Emilia Mickevicius, Ph.D. is a photography historian and curator at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Free. REGISTER
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 Dining with the Roosevelts
To show solidarity with those struggling during the Great Depression, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt eschewed fancy White House meals for more humble fare. Served on White House china, meals were wholesome, if not particularly appetizing, and penciled out at seven and a half cents per person, including coffee. READ MORE |
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Tell Us About Your Favorite New Deal Site
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Some links may limit access for nonsubscribers. Please support local journalism, if you can.
For Democrats, trying to slow climate change is good politics
Research suggests that co-sponsoring the Green New Deal helped in the 2020 elections. Could it boost incumbents’ votes in the 2022 midterms as well?
By Meagan Carmack, Nives Dolšak and Aseem Prakash
The Washington Post, July 15, 2022
Hell Hath No Fury. Like…FDR?
Winning every state except Maine and Vermont, Roosevelt believed he enjoyed a resounding mandate for his progressive initiatives, declaring in his 1937 inaugural address, “I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished,” he signaled a determination to push to obtain additional assistance for the poor and unemployed.
By John A. Riggs
Historynet.com, October 11, 2022
FDR built a ‘Great Wall of Trees.’ Could Biden do the same?
Three years into his presidency and five years into the Great Depression, Franklin Roosevelt asked destitute Great Plains farmers to stop growing wheat and start growing trees. Not just a few trees, but 220 million trees.
By Daniel Cusick
ClimateWire, August 26, 2022
Art Deco-style Chelsea mosaics a reminder of the needle trades
With the decline of manufacturing, Manhattan’s once bustling Garment District has largely been relegated to history. But at a WPA-built high school in Midtown, four mosaics illustrating different aspects of the needle trades are a window onto the past.
Ephemeral New York, October 11, 2022
‘Amsterdam’ Brings a Timely Reminder of a Coup Plot Against FDR
This strange, but sort of true, film centers on a political conspiracy in 1933 when Wall Street moguls sought to enlist the venerated U.S. Marine General Smedley Butler (Robert De Niro) to overthrow President Roosevelt.
By Michael Atkins
The Village Voice, October 10, 2022
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“The arts cannot thrive except where men are free to be themselves and to be in charge of the discipline of their own energies and ardors. The conditions for democracy and for art are one and the same. What we call liberty in politics results in freedom in the arts. There can be no vitality in the works gathered in a museum unless there exists the right of spontaneous life in the society in which the arts are nourished.”
— FDR, Speaking at re-opening of the Museum of Modern Art, NY, 1939
The Living New Deal Wishes You a Happy Thanksgiving
YOUR DONATIONS KEEP THE NEW DEAL SPIRIT ALIVE.
The Living New Deal thanks you for your generous support!
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