Art & Architecture: Legacy & Loss

News items that speak to the vast legacy of New Deal art and architecture and to controversies about the loss of historic works or their relevance to modern times.

• Kevin Baker Writes About How Biden Can Govern with a Divided Congress

  • November 10, 2020

  In a New York Times opinion piece, author Kevin Baker writes about the challenges facing the Biden presidency, and looks to the New Deal and other historical precedents to examine how he can govern despite a divided Congress. Read the story here. ...
• In Pursuit of a New WPA

  • October 23, 2020

  On October 22, 2020, the 2019 Randy Martin Spirit Awardee Arlene Goldbard shared her thoughts on the to the powerful organizing opportunity we have to build a new WPA.Twice before in times of crisis, the U.S. created public service employment programs, underwriting work for the public good. Both the WPA (Works ...
• Descendants of FDR and his New Dealers Write an Open Letter to Vice President Biden

  • July 22, 2020

  The children and grandchildren of FDR and his of the women and men who designed and implemented the New Deal, wrote a letter to Vice President Biden. “We must fight for a 21st Century New Deal,” argue James Roosevelt Jr., Henry Scott Wallace, June Hopkins, Tomlin Perkins Coggeshall, and Harold M. Ickes. ...
• LND Director Richard A Walker Quoted in Morning Call

  • May 25, 2020

  Lewis Hine // U.S. National Archives Living New Deal Director, Richard A Walker, was quoted in a piece published in the Morning Call. The story explores how the New Deal can serve as a model for the coronoavirus recovery plan. Read the piece here. ...
• Richard A Walker and Gray Brechin Interviewed on KLAW - "What Should A 21st Century Post-Pandemic New Deal Look Like?"

  • May 16, 2020

  Rose Aguilar spoke with Living New Deal's Gray Brechin and Richard A Walker for the May 14 edition of Your Call on KALW. Walker and Brechin reflect on the state of the country and the unfolding crisis to argue it's time for a New New Deal. Listen to the interview ...
• “A new New Deal is possible,” Richard A Walker Interviewed in Multibriefs

  • May 1, 2020

  Living New Deal Director Richard A Walker was interviewed by Seth Sandronsky in Multibriefs. “A new New Deal is possible,” said Walker, “If only there were the political will to do it.” Walker made a case for a Public Health Corps that could "mobilize the jobless to go help in ...
• Gray Brechin Interviewed in Curbed

  • April 17, 2020

  Gray Brechin was interviewed by By Patrick Sisson for a Curbed story titled, "Stimulus isn’t enough. Our cities need a post-pandemic New Deal." Reflecting on the current crisis, Brechin noted that, "advocates and boosters of the New Deal constantly spoke of 'increasing the health of the country in the broadest possible terms,' ...
• All in this Together

  • March 20, 2020

  Dear Friends of the Living New Deal, Like you, we’re rattled. As of today at midnight, the 7 million people living in the Bay Area were put under “lock down” to arrest the spread of the corona virus. Schools, shops, offices, theaters, and other centers of public life have closed. That ...
• Mayor De Blasio Invokes the New Deal for Lessons on How to Tackle the COVID-19 Crisis

  • March 17, 2020

  In a March 16 media appearance, New York City Mayor Mayor Bill De Blasio discussed school closures across New York City, part of what he calls a wartime approach to combat COVID-19. This crisis might put millions out of work and will require extraordinary interventions. De Blasio pointed out that we already know how to ...
• Green New Dealers Turn Up the Heat

  • February 21, 2019

  In a radical departure from business as usual, talk of a “New Deal” has lately been reverberating through the halls of the nation’s Capitol. Newly elected Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass) have introduced a resolution for a Green New Deal that is making headlines and rapidly ...