Panel Discussion on New Deal Initiatives
“The New Deal Inheritance: Reflections on the 75th Anniversary of the WPA & RA”
6:00–7:30pm October 18, 2010
Chicago Cultural Center, 78 East Washington Street, 5th Floor Millennium Park Room

 

This presentation will look at the past, present, and future of some of The New Deal's most creative and artistic initiatives, including the Works Progress Administration's Federal Project Number One, and the Resettlement Administration's Photography and Film Projects and Greenbelt Towns Program. Incorporating many visual illustrations, a panel of historians, screenwriters, and documentary filmmakers will discuss the dramatic impact of these Depression-era agencies and their influence on the arts, documentary photography and film, and urban planning. The panel will consider questions such as whether these progressive, innovative ventures of yesteryear are relevant to today's critical urban and social issues, as well as whether we should consider ourselves in need of a "new" New Deal. This mix of intriguing topic, interesting visuals, and lively panelists promises to constitute a thought-provoking and stimulating session.

 

Panelists:
Erin McCarthy is an oral historian and Associate Professor of History in the Department of Humanities, History, and Social Sciences at Columbia College Chicago. McCarthy recently directed and co-curated an oral history project and exhibition entitled Hard Times Yesterday & Today for the Center for Creative Aging at Harold Washington College. In 2008, and to mark the 75th anniversary of The New Deal, she worked with the NARA to organize a New Deal film festival at Columbia College Chicago's Film Row Center and created an undergraduate course called "The Great Depression and The New Deal: the U.S. in the 1930s."

 

Corinne Rose is the Manager of Education at the Museum of Contemporary Photography and adjunct faculty member in Columbia College's Department of Photography. She curated an exhibition on the work of FSA photographer Dorothea Lange that was held at the MoCP in the Fall of 2008 and frequently lectures on the museum's extensive collection of Farm Security Administration photographs.

 

Ron Falzone is an award-winning screenwriter and Associate Professor in the Department of Film and Video at Columbia College Chicago. In addition, he hosts two screening series: Talk Cinema in Chicago and Evanston and Cinema Slapdown at Columbia College. Falzone is a recipient of an Illinois Arts Council Artists Fellowship in Screenwriting (2000), a winner of the IAC Finalist Award (2006, 2007), and an eleven-time Artist in Residence at the Ragdale Foundation in Lake Forest, Illinois.

 

Glory Southwind is an independent documentarian who produced the film Green Towns USA: A New Deal. She grew up in Greenhills, Ohio and is president emeritus of the National New Deal Preservation Association.

 

 

Photography Exhibit Documents Greenbelt Towns

New Deal Utopias: Photographing the Resettlement Administration's Greenbelt Town Program

Opening 5:30 p.m. October 7, 2010

Aud. 244, Roosevelt University

430 S. Michigan Ave.

 

 

You are cordially invited to attend a private unveiling of the recently restored 1937 Post Office Fresco, Airmail, by Edwin Boyd Johnson.

Friday, April 9,2010 6:30-8:30 in the evening Melrose Park Public Library 801 Broadway, Melrose Park, Illinois R.S.V.P. by March 23,2010 (708)649-7485 or mpref@melroseparklibrary.org

The Fresco restoration was made possible by The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, Mayor Ron Serpico, The Melrose Park Historical Society, and many generous individuals. Thank you all for helping to restore a Melrose Park Treasure.

Contact:  Diana Arntzen, darntzen@niu.edu, 815-753-1936, www.niu.edu/artmuseum

Northern Illinois University Art Museum Presents New Deal Era Prints:

The NIU Art Museums spring Art of the New Deal exhibition suite opens April 8, with a reception from 4:30 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.  The suite runs through May 28, 2010 and includes Coming of Age: The WPA/FAP Graphic Arts Division and the American Print.  This exhibition features 61 prints by 33 artists that were actively producing within the print shops of the Graphic Arts Division and includes four types of printmaking techniques: intaglio, relief, lithography, and screenprinting.

The Works Progress (later, Projects) Administration (WPA) began in 1935 as one of President Franklin D. Roosevelts New Deal relief programs to boost the Great Depression economy, improve the infrastructure of the United States, and employ tens of thousands of unemployed Americans.  The WPA gave birth to the Federal Arts Project (FAP) in August of 1935, creating jobs for thousands of artists as well as promoting and enhancing the visual arts within the U.S.  Projects under the FAP not only included those involved in creating and disseminating the artwork, but also had divisions that instructed community arts programs and conducted artistic research.  Public art was promoted under these programs, so Americans could develop a greater appreciation for the amount and diversity of art created by FAP artists.  Although the WPA/FAP ended in 1943, its legacy may be found in the works that remain, the countless artists it inspired, and the projects that formed the foundation for many state and local art education programs throughout the country.

Artists participating in the FAP were afforded considerable independence, with many favoring realistic depictions of workers in mills and factories across the U.S., as well as American scenery and historical subjects.  Such pragmatic art forms gained momentum as they became more accessible to the common people, who identified with and recognized themselves (or their plight) depicted.

Coming of Age: The WPA/FAP Graphic Arts Division and the American Print is the fourth annual collaboration between the NIU Art Museum and students enrolled in ART 656, Museum Exhibitions and Interpretation.  ART 656 is a graduate level Museum Studies course taught by WPA scholar and Museum Studies Coordinator, Peter Van Ael.

The NIU Art Museum is located on the first floor, west end of Altgeld Hall, the castle at the northwest corner of College and Castle on the NIU campus in DeKalb.  The galleries are open to the public Tuesday - Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday 12 noon to 4 p.m., and by appointment for group tours.  Exhibitions and programs are free unless otherwise noted; donations are appreciated.  Pay parking is available in the Visitors Lot on Carroll Avenue and at metered spots in front of Altgeld Hall.  Free parking is available on Saturdays and during receptions and for visiting artist lectures in the lot northeast of Gilbert and College Drives.

The exhibitions of the NIU Art Museum are funded in part by the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency, the Friends of the NIU Art Museum, and the Arts Fund 21.  Support for the New Deal Era projects has also come from 3M Foundation, the DeKalb County Community Foundation, John and Nancy Castle, Veolia Transportation, Panera Bread, the University Honors Program and the Illinois Humanities Council.

Additional programs are listed on our website: www.niu.edu/artmuseum or call 815.753.1936.

**Photographs available upon request.