Gray Brechin, founder and Project Scholar of the Living New Deal, is giving two talks in the Bay Area in early December. First, on December 5 from 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm, he will be the featured speaker at the Exhibition Program for the Victor Arnautoff exhibit at San Francisco State’s J. Paul Leonard Library. Arnautoff was a leading artist in San Francisco in the 1930s, whose best known work is the mural “City Life” located at Coit Tower. Then, on December 6 at 12:00 pm, Brechin will speak at the San Jose Museum of Art. He will discuss how the New Deal left behind an enormous legacy of art because of Roosevelt’s belief that the arts were fundamental to any civilization worthy of the name.