News
Hidden in the Wilson High School auditorium is a gem of local history and art. This gem is a stage-sized fire curtain colorfully painted with a mural that depicts students studying, socializing and walking in graduation gowns towards a horizon…. read more
Parks aren’t luxuries or “amenities.” They’re places of economic, cultural, and spiritual value. During the Great Depression the government put young people to work in the parks building trails, bathrooms and visitor centers. In his last term as governor, Jerry… read more
Criticism of one of the nation’s most important programs can be stopped in its tracks by exposing how it improved our lives. Even those who remain unanimous in their hatred of what FDR accomplished unwittingly use and enjoy what he… read more
Berkeley — In the midst of forecasts of continuing economic woes and congressional gridlock, experts gathered recently at the University of California, Berkeley, to assess what worked and what didn’t during the Great Depression-inspired New Deal, the Obama administration’s still emerging efforts to ease the Great Recession, and prospects for relief, reform and recovery…. read more
In conjunction with the major exhibition of WPA art at Walnut Creek’s Bedford Gallery, the California Symphony will be presenting a concert that includes Federal Music Project compositions by Aaron Copland and Ernst Bacon (as well as Ludwig von Beethoven,… read more
Chronicle reporter Carl Nolte’s article on the WPA-made model of San Francisco elicited a great deal of interest in and information on the 3-D map, including a number of suggestions of where it might go. I will be following up… read more
Chronicle reporter Carl Nolte’s article on the WPA-made model of San Francisco (see News post of Sept. 11, 2010) elicited a great deal of interest in and information on the 3-D map, including a number of suggestions of where it… read more
National New Deal Preservation Association president and California’s Living New Deal collaborator Harvey Smith has, with gallery curator Carrie J. Lederer, culled collections in California and beyond for a major show of New Deal art at the Lesher Center for… read more
From the San Francisco Chronicle (Sept. 6, 2010): A giant museum-quality three-dimensional relief map of San Francisco as it appeared 70 years ago has turned up in a UC Berkeley warehouse, stored in 17 wooden cases. “It is like a… read more
