The Living New Deal has become a truly national organization. Our staff and volunteer National Associates across the country are doing great work bringing the New Deal to life. Our public outreach includes webinars on a wide array of topics, from New Deal art to lessons in modern infrastructure. Locally, we offer in-person talks and events. Last year we hosted a New Deal tour of New York’s Central Park and a guided tour of New Deal art at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. This outreach work has been led by Communications Director Susan Ives, Project Scholar Gray Brechin and the New York City chapter of the Living New Deal.
Judith Kenny, our volunteer Northwest Coordinator, sought and won a grant from the Kinsman Foundation for research and public education on the New Deal in Oregon. Not only has Judith added more than two hundred Oregon sites to our national map, she and local cinematographers produced “Landscape Harmony,” a beautiful video about the five extraordinary New Deal bridges along the Oregon’s coast, with magnificent aerial footage taken from drones. Judith has just been awarded a second Kinsman grant for 2023.
We also call your attention to our On the Road series—photographic and video travel essays about New Deal sites around the country. Our National Associate for Massachusetts, Fern Nesson, retraces some of the routes along the Eastern seaboard, famously laid out in the American Guides series published by the Federal Writers’ Project. Fern’s superb essays now number over fifty. Our National Associate for Indiana, Glory-June Greiff, who has nominated dozens of New Deal sites to the National Register, writes about her favorite New Deal sites in the Midwest. New contributor Oak McCoy (“Professor Oak”) uses videos to create virtual tours of New Deal works in California state parks.
