Labor Arts Forum Symposium
Oregon Art During the Roosevelt Era: 1933-1945
On Saturday, October 9, the Labor Arts Forum in cooperation with the Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission, Portland Art Museum, and Friends of Timberline will host an all-day symposium at the Portland Art Museum that explores the history of the arts in Oregon during the Roosevelt Era (1933-1945).
Film: FDR Art in the PNW
The symposium will examine the impact of 1930s and '40s federal arts projects in Oregon, looking first at their historical context, and then specifically at aspects of the projects, the artists employed and the work produced. Speakers will focus particularly on the visual arts but there will also be presentations on the Oregon Federal Theater and Writers' Projects. The sessions will examine art remaining in the public realm in schools, post offices, state office buildings, college campuses, and the WPA masterwork - Timberline Lodge. The final afternoon session will look at the arts in Oregon during World War II and include reports about ongoing research, education and preservation projects involving art of the Roosevelt era. Speakers include historians, art historians, curators, and collectors from across Oregon and a special guest from Massachusetts.
When President Franklin D. Roosevelt took office in January 1933, the nation was in the grip of a severe economic depression and some 13 million people were out of work. Roosevelt and his administration created a sweeping network of relief programs, called the New Deal, ranging from farm subsidies to soup kitchens, resettlement programs to large public works projects, and most importantly, jobs programs under the Works Progress Administration, or WPA. Those jobs included programs designed to employ visual artists, musicians, actors, and writers. Collectively known as Federal One, they included the Federal Art Project, Music Project, Theater Project, and Writers' Project.
These federal projects had a widespread impact on Oregon's artistic communities as the economy was very weak and jobs in the arts were rare in the private sector. The Federal projects offered many artistic Oregonians their first opportunity to subsist as professionals. Painter Charles Heaney remarked of those years, "None of us were showing ... There was no place to show ... Nobody was selling anything. If they did, they sold a few but it was negligible ... We were producing an almost unwanted commodity."
Tickets are $25 for adults and $15 with student ID. Admission price includes morning coffee and the afternoon reception. To purchase tickets, call 503-226-0973, stop by the Portland Art Museum Box Office at 1219 SW Park Avenue, or visit the website at www.portlandartmuseum.org. Proceeds directly benefit the efforts of Labor Arts Forum.
Speakers for the Symposium - October 9, 2004
Oregon Art During the Roosevelt Era: 1933-1945
Whitsell Auditorium - Portland Art Museum, 1219 SW Park Avenue
Margaret Bullock: Welcome and Updates on Morning Sessions - 9:30 am
Session A - 9:35 am
How does Oregon fit into the national picture of the Roosevelt era?
Session A – 9:35 am
Sandy Polishuk - Introductions, Comments and Discussion
William Robbins - Surviving the Great Depression: The New Deal in Oregon
Carolyn Howe – Picturing the Times: Political and Ideological Struggle on the Oregon Federal Art Project
Oregon Federal Art Project
David Horowitz - People's Art and the New Deal: Radical Artists and Market Planners
Session B - 11:00 am
What was public funding for artists intended to accomplish during the 1930s?
Jacqueline Dirks - Art Becomes Public
Margaret Bullock - Oregon's Federal Art Project: History and Results
Sarah Munro - Timberline Lodge: Spotlight on a Unique Project
Brian Booth - Federal Writer's Project in Oregon
Christine Calfas - Oregon's WPA Federal Theater Project
Lunch Break - 12:30 - 1:30 pm
Margaret Bullock - Welcome and Updates on Afternoon Sessions - 1:30 pm
Session C - 1:35 pm
What experience did artists have on the Oregon Art Project?
Roger Hull - Introductions, Comments and Discussion
Roger Saydack - A Brief Look at the Private Art of some Public Painters
Trisha Kaufman - Three Oregon Women Artists on the Oregon Federal Art Project
JulieAnne Poncet - Shared Legacies: Contemporary Crafts Gallery and the WPA
Roger Hull - Charles Heaney: One artist's experience on the Federal Art Project
Session D - 3:30 pm
What is the status of art of the Roosevelt era today?
David Milholland - Introductions, Comments, Discussion and "Open Mike"
Lois Mack - Waging War on the Home Front: An illustrated Memoir of the Kaiser Shipyards
Dr. Katrine Barber, Eliza Jones & Jo Ogden - Waldport: CPS Camp 56 and its Legacy
Ginny Allen - The Art Inventory
Kerry Jeffrey - Post Office Murals: Present and Future
David Milholland - Oregon Arts of the 1930s: Legacy and Future