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** 2011 EVENTS **
June 4 - Sept 11 - Maine Moderns: Art in Seguinland, 1900-1940
Portland Museum of Art - Portland, Maine
This exhibition of 65 paintings, sculptures, drawings, and photographs at the Portland Museum of Art will examine the personal and professional relationships of a small group of American modernists who worked in Maine in the first half of the 20th century. Although much of their artistic activity was centered in New York, along with their mentor the photographer and art dealer Alfred Stieglitz, these artists all chose to summer in the small mid-coast communities south of Bath, in a region that was then known as "Seguinland." It was there that they developed a camaraderie and sense of place that strongly influenced their work. This exhibition will feature works by F. Holland Day, Clarence White, Mardsen Hartley, Max Weber, Marguerite and William Zorach, and Gaston Lachaise, among others.
July 29-30, 2011- Colorado's Cultural Crossroads - 75th Anniversary Symposium
The Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center - Colorado Springs, CO
The Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center (designed by John Gaw Meem, a New Deal architect in Santa Fe, NM), will host its 75th Anniversary Symposium, Colorado's Cultural Crossroads.
Complete Information
August 11, 2011 - 5 pm
Fireside Chat
Gardens at the Home of Elspeth Bobbs - date and time to be determined. Speaker Pen LeFarge, author of "Turn Right at the Sleeping Dog," will share some of his memories of the Santa Fe New Deal writers and artists. Hopefully Mrs. Bobbs will also share vignettes about the artists that she knew. The guests will also enjoy an English tea at the home of this well known English lady.
September 22, 2011 - 5:30 - 7 pm
Fireside Chat
National Park Service Building on Old Santa Fe Trail in Santa Fe
Title: "My Life with Roy Stryker and the FSA" by Nancy Wood. Wood worked closely with Stryker over a period of time after he retired from the FSA. Her presentation will include some little known information about a number of the Farm Security Administration (FSA) photographers.
October 20, 2011
Tour and Fireside Chat
Regional Tour to Gallup, NM to view their New Deal art and buildings.
Speaker: UNM Professor Bruce Gjeltma, Ph.D. on the "Indian New Deal Programs and the political players - Senator Dennis Chavez, Director John Collier, Sr., and Navajo Chief Martin. Call (505) 690-5845 or 980-0708 for reservations or details.
October 23, 2011 - 1 pm
Fireside Chat
Albuquerque Museum, 2000 Mountain Rd. Speakers: Tey Diana Rebelledo on the "NM/WPA/Federal Writers Project," and Tey Mariana Nunn on the "Hispanic Artists of the WPA/Federal Art Project. There's no admission charge at the museum on Sundays if you get in before 1 p.m. Also, there is a nice restaurant there if desired.
December, 2011
Fireside Chat National Park Service in Santa Fe David Douglas (Grandson of Henry Wallace, Roosevelt's Secretary of Agriculture) Visit our website for updates.
June 2012 - NNDPA Regional Conference
First New Deal Regional Conference sponsored by this association will take place in Santa Fe with New Deal scholars/historians from NM, AZ, TX, CO, AR, OK sharing their research on this vast subject. Let us know if you want to be one of those participating historians.
A featured event of the Conference will be a special panel program on the economics of the New Deal as faced by Roosevelt, and today's economics faced by President Obama. Stay tuned for date, time and speakers to be announced.
For Updates, Contact:
Kathryn Flynn in Santa Fe:
(505) 473-3985 or cell 690-5845
Lynda Grasty in Albuquerque:
(505) 828-0413
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BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Walter Atwood
Gray Brechin
Chris Breiseth
Barbara Dimond
Price Fishback
Robert Leighninger
David Lembeck
Jan Marfyak
Sarah Munro
Charles Nuckolls
Joseph J. Plaud
Harvey Smith, President
Glory Southwind
Al Stein
Nick Taylor
Dallan Wordekemper
Kathy Flynn, Executive Director
Lynda Grasty, Assistant Director
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Happy 99th Birthday to Carl Walker who is NM's oldest CCC "boy." Carl lives
in Santa Fe, one of NNDPA's strongest
supporters and loves/appreciates what
the CCC did for him.
A Passing To Note: NNDPA is saddened by the loss of one
of our most dedicated volunteers, Jane Westenberger, of Santa Fe. She has been tracking and mailing out dues payments/receipts for the past eight years for us. She had just turned 90 and had recently bought a new car to help her cover all her duties. She had sterling careers in the military and National Park Service (20 years). She was an active member of the National Museum of Forest Service board and on the Smoky Bear Hot Air Balloon committee. We will miss her kind and thoughtful spirit.
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A Promise to All Generations: Stories and Essays about Social Security and Frances Perkins
Edited by Christopher Breiseth and Kirstin Downey, Published by Frances Perkins Center, 2011.
This book is a collection of essays by well-known authorities and stories by Americans about the impact of Social Security on their lives. Authors include Nancy Altman, Jonathan Ball, Adam Cohen, Larry DeWitt, Kirsten Downey, Jamie Galbraith, Teresa Ghilarducci, June Hopkins, Eric Kingson, Donn Mitchell, Barack Obama, James Roosevelt, Jr., and others.
Co-editor Christopher Breiseth is an NNDPA board member.
Price: $19.95. Available on-line here, or contact the center at (207) 208-8955 or FrancesPerkinsCenter.org.
* * * * * * * Newly Released... In April, 2011, Hofstra University held a conference "1935: The Reality and the Promise." The conference commemorated Hofstra's 75th anniversary in 2010 and included lectures, panel discussions, tours, art exhibits, and musical performances. Many presentations focused on the New Deal and, of course, the parallels with our current social, cultural and economic realities. The art exhibit "1930s: Art in America" which coincided with the conference included many artists of the New Deal. Board President Harvey Smith and Vice-President Gray Brechin each presented papers which are now available: "The Monkey Block: The Art Culture of the New Deal in the San Francisco Bay Area" by Harvey Smith, M.P.H. A Great Read "Standing in the Ruins of What We Built: New Deal Expansion of Public Education During the Great Depression and Its Contraction Today." by Gray Brechin, Ph.D. Another Great Read * * * * * * *
Rebuild America: Solving the Economic Crisis Through Civic Works Myers-Lipton, Scott, Paradigm Publishers, August, 2009 (paperback) November, 2009 (hardback). Price: $17.99, or if bought in quantities of 50 or more, $8.99. For more information, contact the author at (505) 508-5382
* * * * * * * The Great Depression and the New Deal: A Thematic Encyclopedia Bindas, Kenneth, Danver, Steven L., Leab, Daniel, Leeson, Robert, Rohe, J. Simon, Stein, Alan Harris, Editors. ABC-CLIO Publisher. 2 volumes, 780 pp. EAN 978-1-59884-154-1. $195.00. Stein is a board member of the NNDPA. * * * * * * * Timberline Lodge: The History, Art, and Craft of an American Icon Munro, Sarah Baker. Timber Press, Portland, OR. July 2009. ISBN: 978-0-88192-856-3 224 pp., 110 color photos, 90 b/w both by Aaron Johanson. Foreword by Richard Moe. 8 1/2 x 10, hardcover. $34.95 Orders can be sent to publicity@timberpress.com. Munro is considered the historian of Timberline Lodge by the Friends of Timberline and is also a board member of NNDPA. More Books & Other Media |
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Quotes of Note
"Creativeness often consists of merely turning around what is already there. Did you know that the idea of selling right and left shoes to the public was thought up only a little more than a century ago?"
- Bernice Fitz-Gibbon
"Little progress can be made by merely attempting to repress what is evil. Our great hope lies in developing what is good."
- Calvin Coolidge
"Man, despite his artistic pretentions, his sophistication and many accomplishments, owes the fact of his existence to a six-inch layer of topsoil and the fact that it rains."
- Anonymous
"Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody thought."
-Albert Szent-Gyorgyi
"Intelligence is the only unlimited natural resource."
- Robert Theobald, Habit and Habitat
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We are working to improve our communication and outreach, and want to hear from you about how best you want to hear from us.
The purpose of this e-newsletter is to inspire the conversation about New Deal issues - their impact then, their significance now - and to expand this dialogue in the public arena. In addition to this e-newsletter, a paper version is being prepared for those readers and members who would prefer to have a hard copy.
Beyond this, we also plan to launch brief, periodic "E-NOUNCEMENTS" to draw attention to certain timely events and pressing issues that may be of particular interest or concern to you.
So please feel free to tell us what you think. After all, the best way for us to improve our outreach is to hear your thoughts directly.
Please send comments to
Kathryn Flynn
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Greetings!
Little has changed in the economic crisis since our last newsletter. Still millions are jobless, homeless, and hopeless. The gap between Wall Street and "Main Street" is widening, and the need for a coherent and progressive public policy akin to the New Deal is ever more obvious to anyone who has knowledge of its accomplishments in similar times. The National New Deal Preservation Association (NNDPA) in collaboration with the Living New Deal Project will be involved in a major initiative to make the New Deal legacy visible wherever anyone resides in the U.S. As described in the article by Gray Brechin (below), you too can assist in this effort. Related to this effort NNDPA will be hosting a regional conference next year to bring together New Deal scholars, preservationists and activists to celebrate the incredible New Deal resources of the Southwest. Please join us in this new effort. The National New Deal Preservation Association (NNDPA) holds the New Deal up as an example of what government has done and can do again to help those on "Main Street." Harvey Smith, President |
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The Living New Deal Project, begun in 2004 is a constantly expanding, online inventory of New Deal public works. To date it has focused on documenting New Deal projects in California, but efforts are now underway to expand the Project to include the other 49 states. The Project is based at the Department of Geography at the University of California, Berkeley under the direction of Professor Richard Walker and Dr. Gray Brechin - a NNDPA board member - who have launched a campaign to raise $250,000 to make the inventory national.
The Living New Deal Project reaches out to individuals, libraries, museums, and historical societies that can provide information about New Deal projects via the Project's Web site. http://livingnewdeal.berkeley.edu Once the information is received and confirmed, it is added to a map that, as information accumulates, progressively shows the immense collective impact of New Deal agencies such as the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), Public Works Administration (PWA), Works Progress Administration (WPA.) The legacy of New Deal public works has yet to be fully documented or acknowledged for its ongoing contribution to American life. As a major initiative of the NNDPA, we support the Project's efforts to map New Deal America and show what government at its most compassionate and ingenious can do to help all of its citizens. To learn more, and to contribute, please visit our web site. Thank you. Gray Brechin, Ph.D.
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California
WPA Model of San Francisco Needs a Home
The WPA's scale model of San Francisco is presented to the San Francisco Planning Commission at City Hall in 1940. The San Francisco Chronicle printed an editorial Feb. 26, 2011:
The Full Editorial
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Illinois
Post Office Mural Restorations in the Cities of Herrin and Geneva
More Information
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Maine
Mural Controversy Brings Light to New Deal History
The Story
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New Mexico
A Series of "Fireside Chats" and New Deal Art Exhibits in Santa Fe and Around the State
Complete Listing
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New York
On-Going Art Show Features Female WPA Artists at Livingston Arts Center
More Information
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Oklahoma Major New Deal Art Exhibit On View in Oklahoma City through August 21, 2011  About the Show Smithsonian's National Tour Schedule * * * * * * * Pennsylvania Post Office Art Exhibit Traveling State this Summer
State College's "Sinkhole" Memorial Field Presentation on July 10, 2011 
For More Information * * * * * * *
West Virginia July 9th Festival to Celebrate Unique History of First New Deal Homestead Community Visit Arthurdale, WV * * * * * * * Wisconsin Wisconsin Greentown Declared a Preserve America Community The Story |
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The New Deal Saved Capitalism From Itself
by Jerry L. Rogers
These are hard times, the worst since the Great Depression, but even in our current struggles it is difficult to imagine the danger our nation faced as the New Deal began to take shape. In my own little West Texas town, in the heart of the dust bowl, ambitious young farmers lost their lands and swallowed the pride they had always taken in hard work. There was no work to do, and little foundation for pride or self-definition. Communities survived, only barely, not because of greed and the profit motive but rather because of generosity and compassion. If one family butchered a hog or dug potatoes the lives of several families were extended by the shared benefit. 
Only one desperate time came when there was no food at all in our house. My father, out of work for months, set out to get something for his wife and two small children to eat. My mother, worried about the sizable unpaid bill already owed to the grocery, asked "What if they won't charge any more?" My father answered: "I'll get it anyway!"
Fortunately the store owners did continue his credit, so we are left to wonder what this proud, decent, and impeccably honest man might have done if pushed to his limit. The danger in this situation, to my father, to our family, to the store owner, to our community, existed everywhere in the United States-because he was one of millions on the edge of desperation.
The New Deal saved capitalism from itself. A market economy can, as the theorists like to say, produce a great deal of good for a great many people, and it does indeed have self-correcting mechanisms, but sometimes it gets so badly out of balance that the corrections become unacceptably cruel. By placing a value on people, the New Deal counteracted the heartless and mindless aspects of the market, ameliorated the cruelty, and enabled capitalism to recover and thrive in America when many other parts of the world were sinking into one form or another of totalitarianism.
It was a stroke of genius that the New Deal accomplished much of its work by unleashing a wave of creativity, leaving a legacy of art, architecture, engineering, literature, parks, forests, museums, monuments, and public amenities beyond description. It was a stroke of insight that gave rise to our organization to ensure that these things and the lessons of history they embody may be preserved for the public benefit. Now, as the pendulum of capitalism once again swings toward extremes, ignoring the cruelties and endangering the system itself, those lessons become more and more important. The work of the National New Deal Preservation Association is serious stuff.
Santa Fean Jerry L. Rogers is a retired National Park Service executive, volunteer archaeological site steward, Life Member of the National New Deal Preservation Association, and frequent advocate for democracy.
Photo by Tony Bonanno Photography
We invite your thoughts about the New Deal and its legacy. Please send your comments to
Kathryn Flynn
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WPA Artist Jan Marfyak (1907-1990)
 Born in Gnazda, Slovakia, Jan Marfyak immigrated with his family to the United States in 1912, settling in New Britain, Connecticut. On graduating from high school, he attended the Hartford Art School for two years before enrolling at the Art Student's League in New York City (1926-1931). Taking classes from Kenneth Hayes- Miller, Boardman Robinson, John Carroll and George Groez, he was a monitor for Thomas Hart Benton as well as Walt Kuhn. In January 1934, Marfyak was hired as a project artist with the CWA in New York City, working with Benjamin Knotts. Several years later, as a project artist, he completed work on a mural, Agamemnon, a 4' by 9' oil on gesso panel which was to be placed in a NY city high school. To date, it has not been located.
In 1938, as part of the Works Project Administration/ Federal Arts Project, he relocated to Roswell, New Mexico to work with Roland Dickey, Director of the Roswell Federal Art Center and Vernon Hunter, the Regional Supervisor in Santa Fe. He was responsible for collecting and cataloguing native works of art (Index of Spanish Design and Index of American Design) as well as teaching drawing to students and adults. In 1939, he returned to NYC, resigning from the WPA.
 He was a friend of Peter Hurd, Ben Shahn, Sandy Calder and Jackson Pollock, as well as other artists who had attended the League in the late twenties. He roomed with Edward Laning, worked on Laning's Ellis Island mural and together spent summers on Nantucket painting.
Marfyak is considered an abstract expressionist, working in oils, pastels and acrylics. His son, Jan, recently moved to Rio Rancho, NM and has the body of his father's work. Jan is also Treasurer of the National New Deal Preservation Association as well as the New Mexico New Deal Preservation Association.
For More information on this talented artist, contact his son, Jan: jano1933@gmail.com |
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